Trump is ‘nonstop’ liar who destroyed E Jean Carroll’s reputation, jury hears

Donald Trump is a habitual liar and sexual abuser who destroyed E Jean Carroll's reputation in order to protect his own after she accused him of rape, a New York jury heard on Monday.

In closing arguments in Carroll's civil lawsuit against Trump for sexual battery and defamation, the advice columnist's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, told jurors they could believe the evidence of 10 witnesses for her client or the former president who declined to testify.

Kaplan's said Trump's defense to the alleged rape in a New York department store dressing room in 1996 was that everyone else is "lying about everything".

"In order to find for him you have to find that Donald Trump, the nonstop liar, is the only one in this court telling the truth," she said.

But Trump's lawyer, Joe Tacopina, told the six men and three women on the jury that, by her own admission, large parts of Carroll's account were "unbelievable" and "remarkable".

"The whole story is an unbelievable work of fiction," he said.

Carroll is suing for unspecified damages, claiming that Trump attacked her in a dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman's lingerie department in the spring of 1996. The former Elle magazine advice columnist is also seeking damages for defamation after Trump accused her of lying about the attack and "destroyed her reputation".