Trump rape accuser E Jean Carroll says her generation stayed quiet about assault

A writer suing Donald Trump in a Manhattan federal court for rape says she did not come forward at first because she was a "member of the silent generation".

Columnist E Jean Carroll alleges Mr Trump assaulted her in a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s.

Mr Trump has consistently denied her accusation, calling it "fiction".

A judge on Monday denied a request from Mr Trump's legal team for a mistrial.

The civil rape and defamation trial began last week in a federal court in New York City.

Ms Carroll took the stand for the third time on Monday, facing another round of questioning from Mr Trump's attorneys, who pressed her on why she did not report the alleged assault to the police.

"I was born in 1943," Ms Carroll said. "Women like me were taught and trained to keep our chins up and to not complain."

Ms Carroll added that she was ashamed of the alleged assault and had believed it to be her fault.

Her testimony came moments after a judge on Monday denied a request from Mr Trump's legal team for a mistrial.

In an 18-page letter filed filed early this week in the New York City federal court, Mr Trump's lawyer Joe Tacopina accused US District Judge Lewis Kaplan of making "pervasive unfair and prejudicial" rulings in the trial.

He claimed there had been "numerous examples" of "unfair treatment by the Court, most of which has been witnessed by the Jury".

Mr Trump is not required to testify in the trial, and his lawyers have implied he is unlikely to appear before the court.

Ms Carroll spent much of last week giving her account of the alleged assault and later being cross-examined by Mr Trump's lawyers.

In the request for mistrial, Mr Tacopina argued the judge had "shut down" his lines of questioning, including when he asked Ms Carroll why she did not seek to retrieve security camera footage from the store or scream during the alleged assault.

The request asked the judge to allow Mr Trump's lawyers more "latitude to cross-examine [Ms Carroll] and her witnesses".

Ms Carroll, 79, says the attack occurred at a Bergdorf Goodman store in late 1995 or early 1996.

She says she and Mr Trump bumped into each other while shopping and alleges he later assaulted her in one of the store's changing rooms.

On Monday, Mr Tacopina questioned why Ms Carroll continued to return to the Bergdorf Goodman store several times after the alleged assault.

"Bergdorf's is not a place I'm afraid to enter," she said.

Mr Trump, who is running in the 2024 presidential election, has repeatedly denied Ms Carroll's allegations.

A former columnist for Elle magazine, Ms Carroll was able to bring the civil case against Mr Trump after New York passed the Adult Survivors Act in 2022.

The act allowed a one-year period for victims to file sexual assault lawsuits in the state over claims that would have normally exceeded statute limitations.