What is the exact date and time of the alleged Bergdorf Goodman incident?
Executive summary
Reported accounts do not give a single, precise timestamp for the alleged Bergdorf Goodman dressing-room incident; court filings and major coverage describe the event as taking place in "spring 1996" but do not specify day or time [1]. Key public reporting notes that E. Jean Carroll testified about an encounter in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in spring 1996 during her 2023 trial, and appellate coverage referenced that timeline [1].
1. What the reporting actually says about the date
News coverage cited in the available search results places the incident broadly in "spring 1996" but does not provide an exact calendar date; The Guardian summary of the E. Jean Carroll litigation reiterates Carroll’s testimony that the encounter occurred in spring 1996 without specifying a day [1].
2. What the sources say about time of day or clock time
Available reporting in the provided results does not mention a time of day (morning, afternoon, evening) or a clock time for the alleged Bergdorf dressing-room encounter. The Guardian and appellate summaries report the season and year only; no source among those provided supplies a precise hour or minute [1].
3. Why journalists and courts often use broad timing language
Legal filings and testimony commonly give relative timing (season, month, year) when precise recollection is lacking or when records do not exist to corroborate a specific date and time. The Guardian’s account reflects how reporting on the Carroll case relays testimony as given—an assertion of when the event occurred (“spring 1996”) rather than a forensic timestamp [1].
4. What is documented in the litigation coverage you provided
The available materials show appellate and trial reporting: Carroll testified at a 2023 trial that a friendly encounter in spring 1996 turned violent in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room, and later appeals decisions and filings referenced that timeline while discussing evidence and denials by former President Trump [1]. Those pieces concentrate on the characterization and legal outcome rather than on precise temporal detail [1].
5. Competing perspectives and what the records lack
Court records and advocates for Carroll present the spring-1996 timeline as central to her claim; defendants and their counsel have denied the incident and argued a lack of corroborating physical or DNA evidence [1]. The provided sources do not include a transcript excerpt giving a day or time, nor do they cite contemporaneous store logs, surveillance footage, or appointment records that would fix an exact date or hour [1].
6. How to proceed if you need a precise date/time
If an exact date and clock time are required, the next step is to consult primary court documents (complaints, trial transcripts, exhibits) or contemporaneous records (Bergdorf Goodman appointment logs, security footage, sales receipts). Those primary documents are not included in the search results you provided; available reporting does not reproduce such specifics [1].
7. Limitations and transparency about sources
This analysis is limited to the items in your search results. They consistently report the incident as taking place in "spring 1996" but do not give a precise date or time; therefore this report cannot supply a more specific timestamp than what those sources present [1]. Any claim beyond that would require documents or reporting not found in the current set of sources.
If you want, I can look specifically for trial transcripts, the original complaint, or Bergdorf Goodman records that might contain a precise date and time; those were not among the provided sources.