The civil trial to determine whether Donald Trump raped and then defamed writer E. Jean Carroll began Tuesday in a packed Manhattan courtroom, the latest legal battle facing the beleaguered former president.
Jury selection kicked off in Carroll’s lawsuit against Trump, including allegations that have waited more than five years to make it before a jury — that he sexually assaulted her inside a Midtown dressing room in the mid-1990s and smeared her name when she went public with the allegations.
After about two hours of jury selection, a panel of six men and three women were selected to judge the case, with opening arguments expected after the lunch break.
Carroll arrived at the courthouse just before 9 a.m. Trump elected not to attend the first day of his trial.
Manhattan Federal Court Judge Lewis Kaplan told prospective jurors their identities would remain anonymous if they were selected and advised them not to tell even each other their real names. They will be escorted to and from the courthouse by U.S. Marshals while the case plays out.
Kaplan advised the panelists not to tell their friends or family what case they’re judging if they are selected.
“The goal is to protect you in every way,” Kaplan said.
The judge, who has presided over Carroll’s litigation against Trump since 2019, explained the facts of the case to the would-be jurors.
Carroll says Trump sexually assaulted her after they bumped into each other in a chance encounter at Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Ave, and he asked her to help pick out lingerie for an unnamed woman.
She began to help him out in doing so, but there came a point where Mr. Trump assaulted her in a dressing room and raped her,” Judge Kaplan said. “I will tell you, Mr. Trump denies that any of this ever happened.”
The judge then laid out statements Trump made post-presidency accusing Carroll of lying. Comments he made as president are the subject of a 2019 defamation lawsuit Carroll filed against Trump, running parallel to the case on trial. President Biden’s Justice Department has continued to defend Trump in that suit, claiming federal employees can’t be sued.
Regarding his post-presidency comment included in the case on trial, Trump “admits he made the statement but denies it was false or defamatory,” the judge said, adding Trump further claims Carroll was not injured by anything he said.
Kaplan told the prospective jurors they would be tasked with determining what did or didn’t happen at the department store, whether Carroll was raped or sexually assaulted, and whether and to what extent she should be compensated.
Carroll, 79, has said she was never intimate with a man again after the disturbing encounter with Trump, which she kept quiet about for decades out of fear he would ruin her reputation. Two friends she told in the aftermath are slated to testify, as are women who have accused Trump of sexual assault.
The case is one in a litany of legal challenges facing Trump as he seeks the Republican presidential nomination. He has been hit with 34 felony charges related to the infamous hush money payment to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. And he is being sued by the New York attorney general for rampant business fraud.
He is also being criminally investigated in Georgia for trying to subvert the 2020 election and by special counsel Jack Smith for taking classified documents from the White House.