Nearly a month after former US President Donald Trump faced indictment in an alleged sex crime case, another disturbance could haunt him again as the court looks to select a jury in a three-decade-old rape case. On Tuesday, jurors in a federal civil case heard a former advice columnist allege she was assaulted in a luxury department store dressing room.
According to columnist E Jean Carroll, he met Trump nearly three decades ago while shopping. The 79-year-old columnist alleged that Trump first asked her advice on shopping for lingerie for another woman and added billionaire Trump, then pounced on her, pinned her against a wall and assaulted her in a changing room. Did.
Now, nearly thirty years later, Carroll will testify that what unfolded over a few minutes in a fitting room in 1996 “changed her life forever,” according to one of her attorneys, Shawn Crowley. said in an opening statement.
Trump denies any wrongdoing
Trump – who was not in court but did not rule out testifying – called Carroll a “nut job” who fabricated the rape claim to sell her book. Defense attorney Joe Tacopina told jurors Tuesday that his story was wildly implausible and lacking in evidence.
They accused him of moving the case for money, position and political reasons, urging the heavily Democratic New York jurors to set aside any animosity toward the Republican former president and ex-New Yorker.
“No one is above the law”
“You can hate Donald Trump. OK. But there’s a time and a secret place for that. It’s called the ballot box at the election. It’s not here in a court of law,” Tacopina told the six-man, three- told the women’s panel. “No one is above the law, but no one is below it.”
The trial comes a month after he pleaded not guilty in an unrelated criminal case surrounding payments made to bury accounts of alleged extramarital sex.
Carroll’s trial is a civil case, meaning that regardless of the outcome, Trump is not at risk of going to jail. She is seeking unspecified monetary damages and is seeking Trump’s retraction of statements she alleges were defamatory.
Trump Says “She’s Not My Type”
Among his comments: “She’s not my type,” which his lawyers say was tantamount to calling him unattractive to attack.
The jurors — whose names are being withheld to prevent potential harassment — ranged in age from 26 to 66 and worked in a janitor, a physical therapist and security, health care collection, a library, a high school and other settings. people are involved.
Carroll, 79, is expected to testify as soon as Wednesday after a casual meeting with Trump, 76, turned violent, and he infuriated her while he was responding to rape allegations.
She says that when she met the future president on an unspecified spring Thursday evening at the Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan in 1996, he invited her to shop with him for a women’s lingerie gift before they saw each other. Tease her to wear a bodysuit. Carroll says they were left alone together in a store’s dressing room, where Trump pushed her against a wall and raped her before she fought him off and fled.
Her lawsuit argues that she was psychologically scarred by the alleged attack, and was then subjected to an onslaught of hate messages and reputational damage when Trump portrayed her as a liar.
“This case is Ms. Carroll’s chance to clear her name, to serve justice,” Crowley said.
(with inputs from AP)
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