REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
E. Jean Carroll acknowledges that there are two different versions of herself: the empowered and resilient advice columnist who’s always doing “fabulous,” and the self-effacing writer who says she’s never recovered from her alleged rape at the hands of Donald Trump.
The former president’s lawyer spent Monday morning cross-examining Carroll to expand the divide between them both, flipping through her messages and TV appearances to portray her as an attention-seeking journalist who reveled in the spotlight after accusing Trump of a heinous crime.
It’s a clear attempt to lean into the very defenses Trump—who is not present at his own trial—has raised publicly: that Carroll’s accusation is a political swipe and an attempt to get a payout.