Tonight.
The trial
centered on a rape
allegation against former President
Donald Trump is now underway.
Lawyers for magazine columnist
Jean Carroll
telling the jury
during opening statements
which were today
that she was forcibly raped
by Trump in the 1990s.
Carroll says
it happened in a dressing room
at the Bergdorf Goodman luxury
department store in Manhattan.
Trump's lawyer
denied that allegation today.
Saying Carroll schemed with others
to hurt Trump politically
and never reported the incident
to police.
The trial comes,
of course,
as Trump faces
mounting legal troubles
on multiple fronts
waiting for possible
major indictments from the DOJ
and in Georgia.
OUTFRONT now, Ty Cobb,
former Trump lighthouse lawyer.
And I just want to start with this case,
because I've sort of been calling this
the sleeper case in a sense, right.
That it's it's now happening.
And it could be very significant,
but it isn't one
people have spent a lot of time
talking about until it actually started.
So here we are.
And Carol's lawyer tells the jury today
that they're going to hear
from two longtime friends
who will corroborate her account,
along with testimony from two other women
who will allege Trump physically
forced himself on them.
And her lawyer said in court today,
and I quote three women, one
clear pattern,
pounce, kiss, grab, grope, don't wait.
When you're a star,
you can do anything you want.
And when they speak up about
what happened, attack, humiliate them,
call them liars,
call them too ugly to assault.
Now, to that point, Trump has denied
Carol's allegation
saying that she's, quote, not my type.
When you look at this case, Ty,
do you think she has
a strong case against Trump?
I certainly
think based on the evidence
that the judge has agreed
to let in,
that her cases is quite strong.
She's got the two outcry witnesses
outcry, witnesses
being people she talked to,
you know,
almost immediately after the event,
which that that that
that buttresses her
credibility substantially.
On the other hand, keep in mind,
you know, this is
this is a long, long time ago
right now, almost almost 30 years
and those kind of cases are difficult
to prove.
But the judge having agreed to let in,
you know,
the testimony
from another alleged victim from 17 years
prior to this incident and a second
one second alleged victim,
you know,
based on an incident
ten years after this alleged incident,
you know that that definitely strengthens
strengthens the case in a way that
I think it'll be very difficult for
for Trump to
overcome you know, his attacks.
You know that you know that this is,
you know, politically schemed,
you know, emphasizing
if he's allowed to put in the evidence
that, you know,
that her case is being funded by
a, you know, left leaning billionaire,
even though she testified
apparently at one point
that it was a pure contingency.
You know,
I think that's sort of background noise.
I don't think that
is going to sway a lot of jurors
And attacking her,
I think, is is probably, you know, it
maybe the only strategy they have, but
I'm not sure it's going to be
an effective strategy.
I will say on appeal this.
This is a difficult case.
So. All right.
So and again,
I know the timing on all of this
and how it goes out.
I mean,
it's not like
we're going to know tomorrow, but
but but I do think it's significant,
Ty, that you're saying
this could be something that ends up
happening, mattering.
And it wasn't something
that had really been on the radar
in that way, like Georgia, like the DOJ.
So let me ask you about that,
because the former vice president,
Mike Pence, is in Washington
this week,
expected to appear before the grand jury
investigating January 6th soon.
And he was just asked in an interview
whether he saw Trump
commit any crimes in the lead
up to January 6th.
Now, he's
talked a lot
about the overall issue here,
but he answered this in an important way.
Here's what he said.
Around the country, hundreds of.
I just don't know, Leland,
if it's criminal
to take bad advice from lawyers.
I saw a cast of characters, lawyers
that frankly
should never have been allowed
on the White House grounds,
giving the president counsel
that was just simply
not grounded in history
or the Constitution and the law
What do you hear there?
I don't know, Leland,
if it's criminal
to take bad advice from lawyers.
What do you hear there?
So what I hear is
what I don't hear is no.
Right.
You know, do you think.
Do you think he committed any crime?
Yeah, I don't hear no.
You know,
I think he's acknowledging that,
you know,
there was
there were a lot of unsavory
characters involved in this,
you know, giving him bad advice.
I think he's going to address that
because I'm
sure he had personal conversations
with the president
about the advice
that the president was receiving. Right.
I don't think
we're going to learn a lot new,
however, from Pence.
I think, you know,
through the cooperation
that he allowed his staff to provide
his book and other things,
I think we know,
you know, maybe
90% of
what he's going to say,
but I'm sure he's going to relay
some conversations
now that the court
has freed him up to do so.
And quickly before we go in Georgia.
You and I spent a lot of time
talking about that.
At one point, you know, he felt
this was a clear
and present danger to Trump.
Obviously, that's changed.
But but still could be crucial
what happens there. Right.
Whether there's an indictment.
And finally, will it
be an expectation this would be in May?
You and others felt this
and now she's come out and said,
July 11th until the end of the summer.
July 11th to the end of the summer.
What do you make of that delay?
Well, I think this goes back to,
you know, keep in mind
that her first
press conference on
this was before Trump even left office.
And then a year later,
we heard that charges were imminent.
We heard
the charges were imminent again
in January.
I think she's sort of hard to peg down.
She's got a pending motion
to disqualify the attorney
for several of the alternate electors.
And today's today's news
sort of obscures
what is an important issue in the case,
which is she's facing
a very important deadline
next week to respond to the petition that
Trump's lawyers filed to quash the
report of the investigating
or the grand jury that
gave the findings and and to
enter and remove her
and the judge from the case.
So I think there's a lot to play out.
I don't see this happening
before September.
And as you and I have discussed,
you know, it would be
I don't see the Justice Department
letting her proceed
on the political front
in advance
of whatever they're going to do.
I think the Justice Department
will act before September.
All right.
Well, thank you very much, Ty, as always.
We'll speak to you soon. Thank you.