Jury selection will begin Tuesday in the penalty phase of a defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump.
Jurors in Manhattan will be asked to decide how much money Trump, the Republican front-runner in the 2024 presidential race, will have to pay former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll for defaming her after she accused him of rape.
Tuesday’s trial takes place just steps from where New York Attorney General Letitia James argued Trump committed massive civil fraud.
Carroll claimed Trump raped her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in 1995. Trump vehemently denied the accusations, claiming he had “never met this person in my life” and that she was “not my type,” and accused Carroll of using his name to sell her book What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal.
He also accused her of being part of a political witch hunt hellbent on killing his political aspirations.
Carroll sued Trump in 2019, claiming his denials and verbal attacks damaged her reputation. At the time, Carroll could only sue Trump for defamation because the statute of limitations for sexual assault had expired. However, in 2022, New York lawmakers passed the Adult Survivors Act, which gave survivors of sexual assault or rape one year to file civil suits against their alleged abusers. Carroll was among the first to file a lawsuit under the new act. She was awarded $5 million in that case, though the verdict is being appealed.
Tuesday’s trial is about damages for the remarks the former president made. Because Trump has already been found liable for the comments, lawyers for Carroll argued last week that should Trump decide to testify in his defense, he should be required to state that he understands he sexually assaulted Carroll and be warned that using the stand to make political statements or going beyond the limits of the case won’t be tolerated.
Kaplan ruled earlier this month that Trump was not allowed to tell the jury he did not rape Carroll.
“The fact that Mr. Trump sexually abused — indeed, raped — Ms. Carroll has been conclusively established and is binding in this case,” Kaplan said. “Mr. Trump is precluded from offering any testimony, evidence, or argument suggesting or implying that he did not sexually assault Ms. Carroll, that she fabricated her account of the assault, or that she had any motive to do so.”
Carroll’s legal team cited Trump going rogue at last week’s civil lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general against him and his company for allegedly committing a decadelong fraud starting in 2011.
Trump’s legal team argued Sunday that he should not be forced to testify to his guilt or innocence nor be forced to rein in his comments.
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Trump’s team had also sought to delay the lawsuit, claiming Trump needed to attend the funeral of his mother-in-law.
The trial is expected to last about three days.