That would be an expensive round of golf.
E. Jean Carroll believes that President Trump would have won his $90 million court battle against her if he’d only “listened to his attorney” and testified in his own defense.
The journalist, TV host and advice columnist sued Trump during his first term, claiming that he sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room in the 1990s.
After the jury found in her favor, Trump called her a liar — and then she sued him for defamation. (Both decisions are being appealed.)
During a round of golf in Ireland near the end of the 2019 trial, Trump told reporters that he may cut his trip short to testify in the case. But in the end he stayed on the Emerald Isle.
During a live taping of Cat Greenleaf’s “Soberness Story Hour” podcast at the Algonquin Hotel Thursday, Carroll said she believes that decision cost him the case.
“[His lawyer] Joe Tacopina is a great defense attorney and he did his best for Trump,” she said. “If Trump had followed his advice, he may have won. He could have won. But he didn’t follow Joe Tacopina’s advice. He didn’t come home from Ireland.” (It’s unclear why Carroll thinks Tacopina advised Trump to testify.)
She said that Trump’s White House victories prove he’s good at making a compelling case for himself, and that she believes “he could have won over at least one juror and gotten a hung jury.” She added, “we didn’t have a Manhattan jury . . . we had an upstate, Trump jury,” drawn from Republican-leaning cities and towns.
She said that she suspects Trump didn’t want to be cross-examined by her attorney, Roberta Kaplan, because Kaplan “would have ripped his head off.”
Tacopina declined to comment, and reps for Trump didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The second season of Greenleaf’s “Soberness” will debut October 6. In its second season, the “Talk Stoop” star plans to embrace “soberness” not just from alcohol addiction but also from other impulses and obsessions.
In the first season, she interviewed Jason Biggs, Margaret Cho, Daryll McDaniels, Hank Azaria and others.
The event was sponsored by Hand On Heart non-alcoholic wine.
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