Trump won't call any witnesses to defend him in E. Jean Carroll rape trial, his lawyer says

• Donald Trump's lawyers won't call witnesses in his defense in his rape and defamation trial.
• E. Jean Carroll sued the former president for allegedly raping her and then trashing her in public.

Donald Trump won't have any witnesses testify to defend him in his ongoing rape and defamation trial, his lawyer said in court Wednesday.

Trump hasn't personally shown up to the trial, which has been going on for a week in Manhattan federal court. His legal team previously said the only witness it might call in his defense was Dr. Edgar Nace, a psychiatrist, who might testify as an expert witness over Zoom.

On Wednesday afternoon, Trump's attorney Joe Tacopina said Nace wouldn't testify at all because of "health issues." That means Trump won't present any case at all in the ex-president's defense.

The trial is over a civil lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist who says Trump raped her in a dressing room of the lingerie section of Manhattan's Bergdorf Goodman department store in the spring of 1996. Her lawsuit claims Trump is liable for battery for the alleged rape as well as for defamation after he called her a liar when she went public with her story decades later.

Tacopina confirmed at the end of Tuesday's court session that Trump would not personally appear at the trial. He also said in his opening statement last week that jurors would see Trump's defense unfold through cross-examination of witnesses brought by Carroll's legal team.

"After they testify under questioning by plaintiff's counsel, we get to question them. That's where our defense is in this case," Tacopina said. "It's coming out through the questioning of their witnesses. That's our entire defense."

The attorney also said witnesses will see videos of a sworn deposition Trump took for the case prior to the trial, where he denies Carroll's allegations. Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer representing Carroll, told Insider that the deposition video will be shown on Wednesday or Thursday.

"There are no witnesses to call to prove a negative. Other than saying I didn't do it, which he said he is being sued for, he has denied it. There is nothing else he could say," Tacopina said in his opening statement last week. "He wasn't there. He didn't do it."

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan (who is unrelated to Carroll's lawyer) told jurors on Wednesday that they can expect to begin deliberating the case early next week, following more witnesses from Carroll and closing arguments.