E. Jean Carroll Lawyer Decides Against Calling Up Two Donald Trump Accusers

Two women who accuse Donald Trump of sexual assault will not be called as witnesses in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case, it has emerged.

In a court filing on Saturday, Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, wrote that Natasha Stoynoff and Jessica Leeds will no longer be needed as witnesses.

Kaplan also wrote that she will no longer be seeking Trump’s video deposition in which he discusses a notorious Access Hollywood recording during which he made lewd and sexually charged comments about women.

“In order to keep the issues at this trial focused, we have decided not to offer the designated portions of Defendant’s deposition that relate to the Access Hollywood tape and will not request that Natasha Stoynoff and Jessica Leeds be permitted to testify as part of Plaintiff’s case-in-chief,” Kaplan wrote.

Newsweek sought email comment from Donald Trump’s attorney on Sunday.

Stoynoff, a former People magazine writer, testified in Carroll’s original case in May, 2023, that Trump assaulted her in 2005 while she was at Mar-a-Lago to interview him for an article.

Speaking under oath in that case, Stoynoff said Trump “came toward me again, and I tried to shove him again. He was kissing me, he was up against me. He was holding my shoulders back.”

Her testimony helped convince the jury that Carroll was telling the truth in asserting that Trump sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.

Leeds also testified that Trump sexually assaulted her on a flight more than 30 years ago.

During the May, 2023, trial the jury heard the infamous Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump can be heard boasting about grabbing women “by the p****,” which was released just ahead of the 2016 election.

Trump’s team accused Carroll of filing her suits against the former president for political reasons.

The jury ruled that Trump must pay Carroll a total of $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages over sexual battery and defamation claims.

In this latest defamation claim, Carroll is suing Trump for 2019 comments he made in which he claimed she was inventing the story. A court has already found that Trump did defame her in those 2019 comments and a jury is now deciding how much damages Trump will have to pay Carroll.

In Saturday’s filing, Kaplan also warned the court that Trump will try to turn this latest trial into a presidential campaign event when he testifies on Monday or Tuesday.

“As Your Honor is aware, we previously expressed our concern that Defendant would use his testimony in this case to turn the trial into a campaign event, violating court orders about the scope of this trial or admissible evidence in service of a political agenda,” Kaplan wrote.

“Our concern in that regard has only increased since the trial began,” she wrote. “Defendant has made repeated comments about trial evidence within earshot of the jury, he has sought to develop the public narrative that the Court is not ‘allowing [Defendant] to properly defend [himself] from false accusations’; and he has stated on the record that he ‘would love’ if Your Honor excluded him from the trial for disregarding court orders or engaging in disruptive behavior.”

On January 17, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan threatened to kick Trump out of the courtroom over his loud commentary, which could be heard by the jury.

At the time, Judge Kaplan told the court: “Mr. Trump has the right to be present here. That right can be forfeited. Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial.”

Trump retorted: “I would love it.”

Kaplan continued: “I know you would. I know you would. You just can’t control yourself in this circumstance, apparently.”