NEW YORK — After a political victory in the caucus de Iowaformer President Donald Trump arrived in court Tuesday to face another legal challenge: a trial to determine how much more he owes writer E. Jean Carroll for denying that he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and accusing her of lying about her claims. .
Jury selection is beginning at a federal courthouse in Manhattan where Trump arrived in a motorcade shortly before 9 a.m., entering the building through a special entrance not typically used by the public. Opening arguments could take place in the afternoon in what is essentially a second penalty phase of a legal fight that Carroll already won.
In May, a different jury awarded Carroll $5 million after concluding that Trump sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room in the spring of 1996, and then defamed her in 2022 by claiming she made it up after publicly revealing it in a 2019 memoir. The jury said Carroll had not proven that Trump raped her.
One issue not decided in that first trial was how much Trump owed for comments he made about Carroll while he was still president.
Determining that dollar amount will be the new jury’s only job.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ruled last year that the new jury did not need to decide again whether Carroll was sexually abused or whether Trump’s comments about her were defamatory, since those issues were raised in the first trial.
Trump arrived separately but at the same time as Carroll on Tuesday. His plans for the rest of the week are unclear as his mother-in-law’s funeral It was scheduled for Thursday. The trial is expected to last several days.
He has said he wants to testify, but if he does there will be strict limits on what he can talk about. He did not attend last year’s trial and said recently that his attorney advised him against it.
Because the trial is supposed to focus solely on how much Trump owes Carroll, the judge warned Trump and his lawyers that they cannot tell jurors things he said during the election campaign or elsewhere, like claiming she lied about him to promote her memoir.
Kaplan also prohibited them from saying anything about Carroll’s “past romantic relationships, sexual disposition, and prior sexual experiences,” suggesting that Trump did not sexually abuse Carroll, or implying that she was motivated by “a political agenda, financial interests, mental illness.” , in another way”.
They are also prohibited, the judge said, from presenting any argument inconsistent with the court’s ruling that “Mr. Trump, with actual malice, lied about sexually assaulting Ms. Carroll.”
Those restrictions do not apply outside the presence of the jury. That has left Trump free to continue posting on social media about all of the issues mentioned above, something he has done repeatedly in recent days, although each new denial carries the possibility of increasing the damages he must pay.
Kaplan rejected Trump’s request to delay the trial a week, though he said he would let Trump testify until Monday even if the trial is set for closing arguments Thursday.
Carroll, 80, plans to testify about the damage to his career and reputation that resulted from Trump’s public statements. She seeks $10 million in compensatory damages and millions more in punitive damages.
Trump, 77, is appealing last year’s jury findings and has continued to maintain that he does not know Carroll, that he never met her at the Bergdorf Goodman store in midtown Manhattan in the spring of 1996 and that Carroll made up her claims. to sell his book and for political reasons.
Regardless of his court losses, Trump leads all Republicans in the 2024 presidential primary polls and plans to spend a lot of time in court fighting civil cases and four criminal cases against himsaying, “In a way, I guess they consider it part of the campaign.”
2024-01-16 14:53:55
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