E. Jean Carroll Says Trump ‘Shattered’ Her Reputation After Rape Allegation

Since E. Jean Carroll accused Donald Trump of raping her in a dressing room in Bergdorf Goodman, he has made dozens of posts on social media accusing her of lying — although a jury last year awarded her $2 million in damages for the assault.

On Wednesday, the former president watched and listened for the first time as Ms. Carroll, 80, described how those statements affected her.

“He shattered my reputation,” Ms. Carroll said in a federal courtroom in Lower Manhattan as Mr. Trump sat at the defense table, attending the proceedings for a second straight day.

In a trial this week, the former Elle magazine advice columnist is seeking $10 million in damages for two statements he made as president in 2019, accusing her of lying about claims he assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s. Mr. Trump called Ms. Carroll’s rape claim “totally false,” said that he had never met Ms. Carroll, and that she had invented the story to sell a book.

Ms. Carroll, the author of five books, had regular appearances on programs like “Good Morning America” and the “Today” show before 2019, when she wrote a book that described the assault in a chapter that was published in New York magazine. Those appearances stopped after Mr. Trump accused her of lying and she was deluged with threats and cruel comments about her looks on social media and in her inbox, according to her lawyers.

“I was attacked,” Ms. Carroll said. “I was attacked on Twitter. I was attacked on Facebook. I was living in a new universe.”