Former President Donald Trump speaks after exiting the courtroom for a break at New York Supreme Court, Dec. 7, 2023, in New York. The notorious 2005 “Access Hollywood” video in which Trump was caught on a hot mic speaking disparagingly about women over a decade before he became president can be shown to jurors deciding what he owes E. Jean Carroll, a columnist he defamed, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, as he set up ground rules for a trial next week.
Photo: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP
NEW YORK — Donald Trump shook his head in disgust Tuesday as the judge in his New York defamation trial told prospective jurors that another jury had already decided that the former president sexually abused columnist E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s.
Later, when the judge asked during jury selection if anyone felt he had been treated unfairly by the court system, Trump raised his hand slyly. The gesture drew laughter from the crowd and a comment from the judge, who told Trump: “We know how you feel.”
Fresh from a political win Monday in the Iowa caucuses, the Republican presidential frontrunner detoured to a Manhattan courtroom for what amounts to the penalty phase of a civil defamation lawsuit stemming from Carroll’s claims he sexually attacked her in a department store dressing room.
Nine jurors were selected for the trial, which Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said is likely to last three to five days. Testimony will begin Wednesday.
Trump did not attend the previous trial in the case last May, when a jury found he had sexually abused Carroll and awarded her $5 million in damages. In light of that verdict, Kaplan told prospective jurors the trial beginning Tuesday would focus only on how much money, if any, Trump must pay Carroll for comments he made about her while president in 2019.
For purposes of the new trial, it had already been determined that Trump “did sexually assault Ms. Carroll,” Kaplan said, prompting Trump to shake his head from side to side. The…
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