Writer describes security measures she has taken since Trump's attack

E. Jean Carroll described the various security measures she took out of fear of the threatening messages she received, including hiring security and keeping a gun by her bed.

“I bought bullets for the gun I inherited from my father,” Carroll said during his testimony on Wednesday (17). She added that she is “hyper-alert” now: She has a personal security guard who accompanies her to the trial, as well as the last one, Carroll said, adding that she would like to hire the service more often, but cannot afford it.

When asked why she didn't delete her social media profiles after the threats arrived, Carroll said: “Social media is my lifeblood. Being a writer and not being on social media in 2024 would be living in oblivion,” she added.

Perhaps anticipating cross-examination from Trump's lawyers, Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, showed the jury messages between Carroll and her friend in June 2019:

“I’m fine as wine,” she said in a message to Lisa Birnbach, who testified in the first trial that Carroll confided in her shortly after the 1996 clash with Trump.

“I always say I'm fine. That’s what I say when people ask me how I’m doing,” Carroll said.

Meanwhile, Trump leaned into his lawyers, reacting to almost every part of the writer's testimony.

“I thought I was going to get shot”

E. Jean Carroll's lawyer showed the jury harassing messages Carroll received about her accusations against Donald Trump. In her testimony, the writer said that she received threatening messages, including on June 21, 2019, the day Trump made one of the statements at issue in this trial.

“I thought I was going to get shot,” Carroll said.

Trump leaned into her lawyers reacting as she spoke.

“It’s when you see the words that the image comes to mind and I believed it was happening at that moment,” Carroll said. “I deleted the message to protect myself.”

Carroll's voice broke as he described another violent message he received after the trial last year: “I apologize to those in the courtroom, because when a – when a woman sees the words, we can't help but think about the image. And then he wants me to put a gun in my mouth and pull the trigger,” she said, reading the email. “And I imagine many of us can now imagine that.”