Donald Trump is expected back in a New York courthouse this week as he splits his time between the campaign trail and the courtroom with the 2024 presidential primary season officially underway.
The former president will be back on trial beginning Tuesday in Manhattan federal court for a jury to determine how much he will pay in damages for defaming columnist E. Jean Carroll in 2019 statements he made denying her rape allegations.
This is the second trial over Carroll’s allegations that Trump raped her in a luxury department store dressing room in the spring of 1996. In the first trial, a jury found Trump sexually abused and defamed Carroll and awarded her $5 million for his statements in 2022 attacking her and denying the allegations.
This jury, however, will not consider the rape allegations or the defamation claim, because the presiding judge determined in a ruling ahead of trial that the jury’s verdict in the first trial will also carry over to this case.
The defamatory statements at issue in this trial were made in June 2019, when Trump was president. Trump said in part, “I’ll say it with great respect: Number one, she’s not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?”
Trump is expected to attend at least some of the trial this week, in between the Iowa caucuses and next week’s New Hampshire primary. Trump’s lawyers have suggested he might testify, though Carroll’s lawyers have asked the judge to limit his testimony, arguing he has nothing to testify to because the judge has ruled the sexual assault allegations are not at issue in the trial.
Here’s what to know:
Carroll is seeking more than $10 million in damages, and the judge has ruled the jury will be able to consider Trump’s comments at a CNN town hall following the 2023 verdict when deciding damages.
Jury…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply