The civil trial against former US President Donald Trump has started in New York. It’s about a rape allegation.
New York – Donald Trump will most likely not be there. But the former US President’s badly battered reputation could take even more damage as of Tuesday (April 25). Then a New York jury decides whether they see Trump as a rapist.
The author Jean Carroll accuses the Republican of raping her in a New York department store in the mid-1990s. Trump denies the allegation. The civil trial against Trump over the rape allegation is now starting in New York. Carroll is seeking damages under a new New York state law that gives adult victims of sexual assault a one-year window to file civil suits. According to criminal law, the accusation is time-barred.
Rape allegation against Donald Trump: Ex-President does not want to appear in person
First, the twelve jurors are to be selected for the trial in Manhattan. It is questionable whether 76-year-old Donald Trump will appear at the trial. His attorney, Joseph Tacopina, said the former president would like to come to New York but doesn’t want the city to go through the huge logistical hassles of traveling to the big city and through Manhattan.
Speaking on MSNBC’s The Katie Phang Show, former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said a no-show for Trump would not go down well with the New York City jury. They wouldn’t exactly be inclined to like him anyway. “If I were an attorney for Donald Trump, I would certainly advise him to be there,” McQuade continued. “I think it’s a bad image for the jury to ask, where is he? Is there anything more important than being here?”
Donald Trump: Multiple lawsuits against the former President
Trump is already facing charges of fraud in connection with paying hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels. He also faces federal and state criminal prosecution over attempts to rig the 2020 election, the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol and hoarding classified documents.
It is estimated that the process could take a week. Carroll made the allegation of rape public in a book excerpt in 2019. At the time, Trump responded by saying, among other things, that Carroll was not his type. He also accused her of only wanting to sell her book.
Rape allegation against Donald Trump: “I got in trouble”
Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a dressing room at New York’s Bergdorf Goodman department store in late 1995. She claims the then New York businessman recognized her while she was shopping and asked for help choosing a gift for a woman, not named in the lawsuit. Carroll said that National Public Radiothat she found it “just charming” that she should advise Trump on buying a gift. But then, according to Carroll, he showed her the way to the lingerie department.
“He grabbed a little see-through bodysuit from the counter and told me to try it on,” Carroll said. “And that’s when I got in trouble because we went into the dressing room and he closed the door and that was it.” Carroll claims that Trump pushed her against a wall and force-kissed her until she pushed him away.
“He then pushed her against the wall again, pulled off her pantyhose and raped her for several minutes until she managed to push him off and escape from the store,” the lawsuit reads. Carroll said she immediately told a friend about the assault and a second in the days that followed. Both women have since confirmed Carroll’s statements.
Carroll said she didn’t file a complaint with the police at the time because she was “in shock and didn’t want to see herself as a rape victim.” It wasn’t until Trump was elected president that she changed her mind. Another factor was the allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein that led to the #MeToo movement. Carroll wrote a book called What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal, in which she details abuse of one kind or another by a number of men, including Trump. excerpts from it published New York Magazine.
Trump says he never met Carroll
Trump responded to the allegations, claiming he never met Carroll. However, there is a photo that shows the two with their respective spouses a few years before the alleged assault. He called their claims “complete fraud” and said Carroll’s book “should be sold in the fiction department.” “She made up the story that I met her at the door of this crowded department store in New York City. This is a hoax and a lie,” Trump wrote on his social media page Truth Social.
According to Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, the Carroll case stands out even “amid Trump’s myriad other legal woes.” “Among other things, the election of Trump in 2016 led to a collective outrage among women across the country. For a variety of reasons, but summed up in many ways by the video where he talks about grabbing women by their genitals,” Walsh said in a statement Guardian. “He has been accused of this type of behavior many times and has never been prosecuted. This time it looks like he might actually be held accountable.” (Stefan Krieger)
2023-04-24 09:58:00
#Rape #trial #threatened #Trump #skips #court #date
