New York, Jan 16 (EFE).- Former president of the United States Donald Trump (2017-2021) chose to testify before a jury of nine people, who were chosen this Tuesday, in his defamation case against the writer E. Jean Carroll which starts today in New York.
This was announced by Judge Lewis Kaplan, despite the fact that the columnist’s lawyers had expressed concern that the former president could “wreak chaos” if he attended the trial.
Trump, who on Monday won his first pre-election victory after sweeping more than 50% of the votes in the Iowa caucuses, attended the Manhattan federal court today dressed in his ‘uniform’, a black suit and a red tie.
Judge Kaplan had rejected Trump’s request to postpone the trial for a week so he could attend the funeral of Amalija Knavs, the mother of his wife, Melania, this Thursday.
In this trial, which according to Kaplan will last between three and five days, Trump will have to respond to accusations of defaming Carroll when he claimed, in 2019, that he did not know the writer, and that his statement that the former president had abused sexually about her in the 1990s was false.
Carroll is asking for $10 million in compensation.
Last May, a jury already convicted Trump of sexual abuse and defamation of the writer, but not of rape. Since then, the former president has continued to maintain that he does not know her and cast doubt on her version of events.
On January 9, Judge Kaplan ruled that in this case Trump cannot deny sexual assault, as it was a case that was already the subject of a previous jury ruling, something he reiterated again today.
This ruling means that Trump cannot fight Carroll’s sexual allegations in this trial: Juries are tasked with deciding only whether Trump defamed her with his 2019 statements and, if so, the financial penalties associated with such denial.
On Tuesday morning, the selection of the nine jurors – who remain anonymous – from the more than forty called took place.
This selection process lasted more than three hours and neither Trump nor Carroll could speak while the judge questioned the potential jurors.
Unable to speak, Trump on many occasions chose to turn his back to Kaplan to maintain eye contact while these people gave their answers.
On the contrary, Carroll chose to keep his gaze forward – in the direction of the judge – at all times.
In addition to being in full campaign for the Republican primaries, on Thursday of last week the final arguments in the civil case for fraud against his family business were concluded, in which the former president faces a fine of up to $370 million and a lifetime ban on New York State real estate.
And it’s not just the trials in New York, Trump faces four other criminal cases: two for trying to reverse the result of the 2020 elections, in which he lost against the current president, Joe Biden; one for taking classified documents from the White House to his Florida residence; and one related to payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels to conceal a sexual encounter.
Sarah Yanez-Richards
2024-01-16 21:05:00
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