E Jean Carroll ‘doubled over with pain’ recalling alleged Trump rape, jury hears

The advice columnist E Jean Carroll was so traumatized recalling her alleged rape by Donald Trump that she was "doubled over with stomach pain", a leading clinical psychologist told a New York jury on Wednesday.

Dr Leslie Lebowitz told Trump's civil trial that Carroll exhibits aspects of post-traumatic stress disorder, including physical pain, without fitting the full clinical diagnosis as a result of the alleged assault in 1996.

"She does have symptoms that fit into the rubric of PTSD," said Lebowitz.

The psychologist added that "Carroll lives with a higher level of chronic fearfulness" than before the alleged attack.

Carroll is seeking damages for alleged rape in a New York department store changing room, and for defamation after the former US president said she was lying when she went public with her accusations in 2019.

Lebowitz, who interviewed Carroll for about 20 hours, said the advice columnist experiences intrusive physical symptoms of the alleged attack. These included "squirming in her seat" as she recounted the experience of Trump's fingers in her vagina.

These symptoms worsened, she said, when Trump ran for the White House and was in the news, but diminished again in time.