A defense attorney for former President Donald J. Trump in the lawsuit filed by writer E. Jean Carroll accusing him of rape said Wednesday that he will not present any witnesses.
The lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, previously told the judge that Trump would not appear in court to testify in this civil case.
Trump, who is running for president again, traveled to Scotland this week to unveil his new golf course.
Speaking before the jury on Wednesday, Tacopina told Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the United States District Court in Manhattan that an expert witness the defense planned to present on Trump’s behalf was unable to attend.
Even without witnesses, Trump’s lawyers can use the testimony they requested during Carroll’s cross-examination and the people who have testified on his behalf when they present their closing arguments to the jury.
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta A. Kaplan, said she is likely to finish presenting Carroll’s case by noon Thursday.
Judge Kaplan, who is not related to attorney Kaplan, told the jury that he will likely receive the case for deliberation early next week.
Carroll said the attack occurred during a visit to a high-end department store, Bergdorf Goodman, one afternoon in the mid-1990s.
As she was leaving the venue through a revolving door, Trump walked in and recognized her, persuading her to help him buy a gift for a friend.
She recounted that the former president raped her in a dressing room in the lingerie department.
Carroll’s lawyers promised in their opening arguments to show the jury that Trump had attacked not only her, but also two other women “in a similar manner.”
On Tuesday, the jury heard from one of them, Jessica Leeds, and they hope to do the same with the other, Natasha Stoynoff, on Wednesday afternoon.
Shawn G. Crowley, Carroll’s attorney, said in his opening remarks that the jury would hear Stoynoff’s version that he traveled to the Trump-owned Mar-a-Lago in Florida in December 2005 to write a story for People magazine about their wedding anniversary.
Trump took Stoynoff to an empty room and told her he wanted to show her something, when they entered he closed the door, took Stoynoff by the shoulders, pushed her against the wall and started kissing her.
