Former columnist for the American magazine Elle E. Jean Carroll leaves Manhattan federal court in New York on January 17, 2024 (AFP / ANGELA WEISS)
Sexual “attacker”, “liar” and “defamer”: in an electric atmosphere, Donald Trump was the target on Wednesday at his defamation trial in New York by his accuser, the author Jean Carroll, who had already had him convicted in 2023 to compensation for sexual assault.
The former President of the United States, who dreams of becoming one again, is shuttling this week between his campaign for the first Republican primaries and the Manhattan courthouse with the ambition of also making it a political platform.
Returning home to New York on Tuesday evening from a crowded meeting in the small freezing and snowy state of New Hampshire (north-east), where the primaries will take place on January 23, the 77-year-old tycoon left his “Trump Tower” and spent his Wednesday in Manhattan federal civil court facing former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, 80 years old.
“I am here because Donald Trump assaulted me (sexually), when I wrote about it he lied and destroyed my reputation,” she whispered in front of the nine jurors, according to CNN and NBC televisions which have access to the courtroom.
In a tense atmosphere and while Mr. Trump was silent on Tuesday, he commented loudly with his lawyers on the complainant’s testimony. The judge then asked him to tone down, because if the former president “has the right to be present (…) this right can be taken away.”
“I imagine you would like me to do that,” asked Magistrate Lewis Kaplan. “I would love that,” retorted Donald Trump with sarcasm.
Ms. Carroll faces for the second day the man she has accused for years of having raped her almost 30 years ago.
She finally had him declared civilly responsible, during a first trial last May in New York, for “sexual assault” in 1996 in a fitting room of a department store in the city and for defamation for comments in 2022. Donald Trump was thus ordered by the jury to pay him five million dollars in compensation.
He appealed and was never criminally prosecuted in this case.
– “Crazy” and “phony” –
Former columnist for the American magazine Elle, E. Jean Carroll, arrives at the federal court in Manhattan, New York, on January 17, 2024 (AFP / ANGELA WEISS)
Despite this court decision, he continued to denigrate and insult his victim, a “crazy” woman with a “phony story” who he said he had “never seen in (his) life”.
“It’s a lie,” she protested on Wednesday, imploring the jury to “restore (her) reputation” and demanding ten million dollars for moral and professional damage.
The tycoon and big favorite in the Republican Party primaries who easily won the Iowa state caucus in the Midwest on Monday is the target of at least six civil and criminal trials this year.
But the New York businessman transforms each of his indictments or appearances into a political forum. He multiplies the virulent invectives against the justice system and the Democratic camp of President Joe Biden, whom he accuses of wanting to convict him to prevent him from winning the presidential election in November.
He repeated Tuesday that his successor in the White House, and again likely adversary, was orchestrating “a witch hunt.” Donald Trump must speak to the press in Manhattan late in the afternoon and then return to campaign in the evening in New Hampshire in order to “pocket votes” in the January 23 election.
– Second trial –
This second defamation trial is expected to last several days but is limited in substance and in time thanks to the first civil judgment last May.
Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower in New York on his way to Manhattan federal court for his defamation trial, January 17, 2024 (AFP / Charly TRIBALLEAU)
The debates revolve around another defamation complaint from Ms. Carroll for previous statements by Donald Trump, in June 2019, in the wake of his first accusations of rape contained in his book.
Then president of the United States (2017-2021), he said that the woman who was “not his type” had invented everything to “sell a new book”. The procedure had experienced delays but this second trial was maintained and will also look at comments made by Donald Trump since the spring of 2023.
And these new legal setbacks raise the question of Donald Trump’s behavior towards women more generally, after numerous accusations of sexual assault never brought to criminal trial.
2024-01-17 19:19:00
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