CNN
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Attorneys for E. Jean Carroll and Donald Trump are set to give closing arguments Monday morning in the battery and defamation trial against the former president in Manhattan federal court.
Carroll, a former magazine columnist, alleges Trump raped her in the Bergdorf Goodman department store in the spring of 1996 and then defamed her when he denied her claim, said she wasn’t his type and suggested she made up the story to boost sales of her book. Trump has denied all wrongdoing.
Attorneys for Carroll and Trump rested their respective cases last Thursday. Carroll’s legal team put on 11 witnesses in her case including the writer herself over seven trial days. Trump did not put on a defense and ultimately opted not to testify.
District Judge Lewis Kaplan gave Trump a window to change his mind about testifying over the weekend, giving him a Sunday evening deadline to petition the court to reopen Trump’s defense case for the sole purpose of allowing the former president to testify.
“He has a right to testify which has been waived but if he has second thoughts, I’ll at least consider it and maybe we’ll see what happens,” Kaplan told the attorneys.
The judge said in court Thursday evening that he ordered the precautionary measure in light of Trump’s public comments also made Thursday.
Trump, who has not appeared in the courtroom at any point during the trial, told reporters in Ireland on Thursday he’ll “probably attend” the trial.
“I have to go back for a woman that made a false accusation about me, and I have a judge who is extremely hostile,” Trump said while golfing in Doonbeg, Ireland.
No such motion was made by the deadline Sunday and his attorneys confirmed he will not attend the trial.
Kaplan is expected to instruct and charge the jury to begin deliberations on Tuesday.
