Closing arguments in Trump-Carroll civil trial to begin — Transcript

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1. 0:01former president Donald Trump rejected a
2. 0:03last opportunity to testify at a Civil
3. 0:05Trial where writer Eugene Carroll
4. 0:07accused him of raping her in a
5. 0:09department store dressing room and then
6. 0:11defaming her by denying it attorneys for
7. 0:14both parties are set to give closing
8. 0:15arguments in the case this morning
9. 0:17deposition video was released of trump
10. 0:20who denies Carol's claims here's what he
11. 0:22had to say when asked about his
12. 0:24knowledge of Carol
13. 0:26when you say and hear I don't know this
14. 0:30woman and have no idea who she was who
15. 0:33she is
16. 0:35even though you're using the present
17. 0:37tense
18. 0:38you're referring back to your knowledge
19. 0:40as of when she first made the allegation
20. 0:41I still don't know this woman I think
21. 0:44she's a whack jab I have no idea I don't
22. 0:46know anything about this woman other
23. 0:48than what I read in stories and what I
24. 0:51hear I I know I know nothing about her
25. 0:57so joining us now for more on this is
26. 1:00Rebecca Roy fee she is a New York law
27. 1:02school professor and a CBS News
28. 1:04contributor so uh the former president
29. 1:07chose not to testify but we did see
30. 1:09those deposition tapes was that a
31. 1:11mistake on his part not to testify
32. 1:14I really don't think so I'm sure that
33. 1:17his lawyers were advising him not to
34. 1:19testify and that's because on
35. 1:21cross-examination there's a huge risk
36. 1:24that any witness would do more harm than
37. 1:27good under these circumstances and I
38. 1:29think especially this witness largely
39. 1:31because of his self-confidence his sense
40. 1:34that he has this ability to talk his way
41. 1:36out of things sometimes that works for
42. 1:37him but sometimes it really doesn't so I
43. 1:40think it was a call
44. 1:41um and probably a good call on behalf of
45. 1:43his lawyers so jury delivery
46. 1:46deliberations they could start today
47. 1:48um you know this is not a criminal trial
48. 1:50it's a civil case what does the defense
49. 1:52of the prosecution need to do to sway
50. 1:54the jury what will they be considering
51. 1:58you know this is going to come down to
52. 2:01whom the jury believes which party the
53. 2:05jury thinks is lying I mean it's quite
54. 2:07as simple as that now the defense is
55. 2:10going to as we were just talking about
56. 2:12because they put on no case they really
57. 2:14do have to rely on their
58. 2:16cross-examination and attorneys for the
59. 2:18defense tried to lay out the following
60. 2:20claim essentially that this um witness
61. 2:23that e Gene Carroll is lying and you
62. 2:26know sort of more moderate version of
63. 2:28she's a whack job that she's lying
64. 2:31um you know they questioned her
65. 2:32motivation was it politics money Fame
66. 2:35they questioned her memory she didn't
67. 2:38remember the exact date and they
68. 2:40questioned um you know what she did
69. 2:42during and after this uh alleged attack
70. 2:46and in all of that suggesting that this
71. 2:49was made up so the jury's gonna receive
72. 2:52this information and then they're going
73. 2:54to hear from the from the um attorneys
74. 2:58for Eugene Carroll who are going to
75. 3:01um highlight the her testimony along
76. 3:04with the testimony of the other
77. 3:06Witnesses especially those two other
78. 3:08women who claimed similar attacks by the
79. 3:10former president and it will come down
80. 3:13to a credibility battle
81. 3:16um what is the sort of standard we know
82. 3:19in a criminal case it's like Beyond A
83. 3:20Reasonable Doubt but what is the
84. 3:22standard for a case like this and I mean
85. 3:24it's got to be challenging because so
86. 3:26much time has gone by
87. 3:28right so the standard is much lower and
88. 3:31really the you know the plaintiffs here
89. 3:33really have to prove
90. 3:35um you know simply that it's more likely
91. 3:37than not that this is what happened so
92. 3:39it's a much lower standard but that said
93. 3:41you're right a huge amount of time has
94. 3:44passed and normally in our in our
95. 3:46justice system even in the Civil Justice
96. 3:48System there are limits time limits on
97. 3:51when people can bring claims and that's
98. 3:52because it becomes harder to defend
99. 3:56against a claim not only to bring that
100. 3:58claim as time passes and as we know New
101. 4:01York passed this law giving a an
102. 4:03additional year for alleged victims of
103. 4:07sexual assault to raise their claims and
104. 4:10that
105. 4:11um has opened up the courtrooms to these
106. 4:13sorts of claims but they present extreme
107. 4:15difficulties for the plaintiffs and it
108. 4:18will you know again just come down to
109. 4:20whether or not given this passage of
110. 4:22time given the erosion of memory and
111. 4:24given the jury's understanding that the
112. 4:26defense is somewhat limited given that
113. 4:28passage of time what the jury thinks is
114. 4:31more likely than not to have happened
115. 4:33okay so as you know the former president
116. 4:36is facing a number of legal challenges
117. 4:38so I want to ask you about a couple of
118. 4:39those uh the classified documents case
119. 4:41the New York Times reports that Federal
120. 4:43prosecutors have the cooperation of a
121. 4:46person who has worked for the former
122. 4:48president at Mar-A-Lago how crucial of a
123. 4:51role could this person play
124. 4:54well you know until we know exactly who
125. 4:56that person is and what role they played
126. 4:59uh in returning the documents retaining
127. 5:02the documents it's a little bit hard to
128. 5:04know but having a cooperating witness is
129. 5:07always extremely helpful for the
130. 5:11prosecution and that's because there's
131. 5:13certain things that are hard to prove
132. 5:15with direct evidence and with um even
133. 5:18with circumstantial evidence especially
134. 5:20the intent and because this particular
135. 5:22allegation really hinges on what the
136. 5:26president was thinking what he was
137. 5:28intending to do with these documents it
138. 5:31is pretty critical to have somebody who
139. 5:34can say you know he told me this or I
140. 5:37saw him do that and you know again
141. 5:39because we don't know exactly what this
142. 5:41person might have heard or seen it's
143. 5:43hard to say just how important that is
144. 5:45but in a case like this I would think it
145. 5:47would be critical to have somebody to
146. 5:49help put these puzzle pieces together
147. 5:51all right other big picture that is
148. 5:54being put together with many many puzzle
149. 5:56pieces the investigation into the attack
150. 5:57on the capital Dan scavino and former
151. 6:00vice president Mike Pence have testified
152. 6:01in special counsel Jack Smith's
153. 6:04investigation into the January 6 attack
154. 6:06on the capitol
155. 6:07what does this say about where the case
156. 6:10could be headed
157. 6:13so this is the culmination of an
158. 6:15extremely long legal battle just as a
159. 6:17reminder we probably have all heard
160. 6:19about it but there are so many different
161. 6:21strands it's hard to remember all of
162. 6:23them at the same time but there was a
163. 6:24long legal battle over whether or not
164. 6:26these top advisors would have to testify
165. 6:29due to executive privilege and those
166. 6:32legal battles have ended and the courts
167. 6:36have ruled that these this Inner Circle
168. 6:38really does have to testify so that is
169. 6:41an indication not that this is the whole
170. 6:43of the case but rather that this is the
171. 6:46sort of conclusion of the case I
172. 6:47wouldn't say that we then have a
173. 6:49timeline for knowing exactly when a
174. 6:51decision on whether or not to indict
175. 6:53will be made but we do know that we are
176. 6:56reaching an end game here at a certain
177. 7:00level because this is these are the
178. 7:02people that you would want to bring in
179. 7:04last once you have built your pace you
180. 7:06want to hear from these people who are
181. 7:08the closest to the former president and
182. 7:11might have heard what was going on on
183. 7:14um on that day I'm leading up to that
184. 7:16day regarding the election and
185. 7:17particularly again having to do with
186. 7:19intent because the key question here is
187. 7:22you know what how how many of his top
188. 7:25advisors had informed him at this point
189. 7:26that there was no evidence or no
190. 7:28credible evidence of fraud to the extent
191. 7:31that it would uh change the results of
192. 7:33this election if he knew that and he was
193. 7:35still pushing um you know for these uh
194. 7:39for these for these events to happen to
195. 7:41reverse the consequences of the election
196. 7:43well that's quite significant yeah yeah
197. 7:46indeed Rebecca royfeet always great
198. 7:48having you thank you
199. 7:49nice talking with you Emery