A civil trial for defamation and accusation of rape against Donald Trump opened Tuesday in New York, following complaints by a former press columnist, E. Jean Carroll, for facts dating back to the 1990s and that the former US president denies.
The debates, in the almost certain absence of Mr. Trump, must begin in the afternoon before the federal civil court in Manhattan as soon as the jury is selected, which will have to determine the amount of reparations to possibly be allocated to this writer and former collaborator. of Elle magazine, now 79 years old.
It’s a tricky legal case — of alleged defamation and alleged rape — that has pitted Ms. Carroll against Mr. Trump, the billionaire ex-president, who has been surrounded by court cases since 2019, including a landmark criminal indictment in early 2019. April in New York for 34 accounting and tax frauds.
At 76, the former tenant of the White House (2017-2021) dreams of being re-elected in November 2024.
After spending the morning selecting the nine jurors, Judge Lewis Kaplan recalled that Ms Carroll, present at the hearing, accused “Mr. Trump of assaulting her in a dressing room and raping her” , which Donald “Trump denies”.
– “groped and raped” –
In fact, E. Jean Carroll and his lawyers have claimed since 2019 that the former President of the United States “groped, groped and raped her” in a fitting room of a New York department store in 1995 or 1996. .
Having chosen in November 2019 a civil procedure for defamation, she then filed a complaint against Mr. Trump because he had qualified in June of the same year as a “complete lie” these allegations of rape.
The former Republican president has always replied that Ms. Carroll was “not his kind of woman” and his lawyers claimed that he was protected, in 2019, by his immunity as head of state.
As for the rape charges, Ms. Carroll had not been able to file a complaint in 2019 since the alleged facts were prescribed.
However, on November 24, 2022, a New York State law (“Adult Survivors Act”) came into force allowing, for one year, victims of sexual assault to relaunch their civil legal action.
Ms. Carroll therefore filed a new civil complaint in November in New York for “defamation” but also “assault” and “assault” and demanded a trial for damages, her lawyers accusing, in the complaint, Mr. Trump of “raping her”.
The two protagonists had made their deposition under oath in October.
– “It never happened” –
During his testimony by video link, made public by justice in January, Donald Trump had reaffirmed his line of defense: “I will say it with the greatest respect: first she is not my type; never happened”.
But, comically, in front of a photo where he appeared with Ms. Carroll at a reception in the 1990s, Mr. Trump then confused her with his former wife, actress Marla Maples, 59, to whom he was married from 1993 to 1999.
The trial is expected to last five to ten days according to Judge Kaplan.
Donald Trump sees court cases pile up on the road to the primary for the Republican nomination in 2024.
On April 4, in unprecedented history for a former US president, he was criminally charged in New York with 34 alleged accounting and tax frauds, related to payments to cover up three embarrassing cases ahead of the 2016 presidential election, including a relationship sex with porn actress Stormy Daniels, whom he has always denied.
He also remains in the sights of justice for his alleged involvement in an attempt to turn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia in his favor, and for his role in the assault on the Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021.
Auteur: AFP – Seneweb.com
2023-04-25 21:04:03
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