NEW YORK (AP) — After a giant victory within the Iowa caucus, former President Donald Trump is anticipated in court docket Tuesday to face one other authorized problem: a trial to find out how way more he owes the author E. Jean Carroll for denying that he sexually assaulted her within the Nineties and accusing her of mendacity about her claims.
Jury choice begins Tuesday morning at a federal court docket in Manhattan. Opening arguments might happen by afternoon in what is basically a second penalty section of a authorized combat Carroll has already gained.
In Might, a unique jury awarded Carroll $5 million after concluding that Trump sexually abused her in a division retailer dressing room in spring 1996, then defamed her in 2022 by claiming she made it up after she revealed it publicly in a 2019 memoir. The jury mentioned Carroll hadn’t confirmed that Trump raped her.
One concern that wasn’t determined in that first trial was how a lot Trump owed for feedback he made about Carroll whereas he was nonetheless president.
Figuring out that greenback quantity would be the new jury’s solely job.
Decide Lewis A. Kaplan dominated final yr that the brand new jury didn’t must determine anew whether or not Carroll was sexually abused or whether or not Trump’s remarks about her have been defamatory since these topics have been lined within the first trial.
Trump is anticipated on the trial Tuesday, although his plans for the remainder of the week have turn out to be unclear since his mother-in-law’s funeral was scheduled for Thursday. The trial is anticipated to final a number of days.
He has mentioned he needs to testify, but when he does there can be strict limits on what he can discuss. He didn’t attend final yr’s trial, saying not too long ago that his lawyer suggested towards it.
As a result of the trial is meant to be targeted solely on how a lot Trump owes Carroll, the decide has warned Trump and his attorneys that they can’t say issues to jurors that he has mentioned on the marketing campaign path or elsewhere, like claiming she lied about him to advertise her memoir.
Kaplan additionally banned them from saying something about Carroll’s “previous romantic relationships, sexual disposition, and prior sexual experiences,” from suggesting Trump did not sexually abuse Carroll or from implying she was motivated by “a political agenda, monetary pursuits, psychological sickness, or in any other case.”
They’re additionally banned, the decide mentioned, from advancing any argument inconsistent with the court docket’s ruling that “Mr. Trump, with precise malice, lied about sexually assaulting Ms. Carroll.”
These restrictions don’t apply outdoors of the presence of the jury. That has left Trump free to proceed posting on social media about the entire above subjects — one thing he has achieved repeatedly in latest days — though every contemporary denial comes with the opportunity of growing damages he should pay.
Kaplan rejected Trump’s request to delay the trial every week, though he mentioned he would let Trump testify as late as Monday even when the trial is in any other case prepared for closing arguments by Thursday.
Carroll, 80, plans to testify concerning the injury to her profession and status that resulted from Trump’s public statements. She seeks $10 million in compensatory damages and tens of millions extra in punitive damages.
Trump, 77, is interesting the findings of final yr’s jury and has continued to take care of that he does not know Carroll, that he by no means met her on the Bergdorf Goodman retailer in midtown Manhattan in spring 1996 and that Carroll made up her claims to promote her e book and for political causes.
No matter his losses in court docket, Trump leads all Republicans in presidential major polls and plans to spend loads of time in court docket preventing the civil instances and 4 legal instances towards him, saying, “In a approach, I suppose you contemplate it a part of the marketing campaign.”
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