- Trump defends against defamation
- E. Jean Carroll accuses Trump
- Trial’s focus on damages
In a New York courtroom, former US President Donald Trump has recommenced his defense against charges that he defamed author E. Jean Carroll, who leveled a rape accusation against him.
Carroll says Trump defamed her in 2019 by denying he assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in Manhattan. Trump, who has stated his intention to depose at the civil trial, was seated two tables behind Carroll. Carroll is accusing Trump of defaming her in 2019.
Carroll, aged 80, is demanding a minimum of $10 million in damages.
On Tuesday, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presides over the case, instructed potential jurors that their deliberations would be limited to the damages that Trump ought to compensate Carroll. This instruction did not address the integrity of the alleged assault or Trump’s deceit.
Moreover, he stated that the trial could last three to five days.
Trump has positioned himself as the target of political persecution and recommended that Kaplan’s case be dismissed.
“Judge Kaplan should immediately cease this entire crooked, Joe Biden-directed Election Interference campaign against me,” he wrote on social media.
“He ought to accomplish it for the United States.”
As of now, Trump has entered pleas of not guilty in four criminal cases, two of which allege he attempted to tamper with the results of the 2020 election. These cases can potentially result in Trump being incarcerated before the November presidential election.
He is also a defendant in at least two additional civil proceedings. However, Trump has lost one defamation case against Carroll thus far.
Trump was sentenced to $5 million for defaming and sexually abusing the former Elle journalist in May.
Trump asserts that he was not acquainted with Carroll and that she fabricated the incident to promote her memoir. Also alluring is the $5 million award.
Kaplan, who presided over that case as well, stated that he had prohibited Trump from asserting that he neither sexually assaulted Carroll nor defamed her nor that she fabricated her account.
Trump has intensified his criticisms of Carroll in recent weeks, stating that she was unaware of the decade since their first meeting.
He described Kaplan as “terrible, biased, and irrationally angry.”
As a result of Kaplan’s pre-trial rulings, it could be difficult for Trump to avoid enormous additional damages.
One such provision prohibits Trump from implying that he did not conduct rape against Carroll, as the term is defined by New York penal law, because the initial jury failed to convict Trump of rape.
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Because Trump committed the assault with his fingertips, Kaplan has ruled that Carroll’s rape allegation was “substantially true.”
Additionally, Trump is not permitted to disclose DNA evidence, Carroll’s sexual activities, or the Democratic Party’s financial support for her case. Carroll identifies with the Democratic Party.
Moreover, similar to the initial trial, the jury will have access to the 2005 Access Hollywood video in which Trump obscenely characterized the capacity of celebrities such as himself to engage in sexual relations with attractive women.
Trump failed to recant his remarks regarding them during a deposition in 2022. According to Kaplan, the video may provide “useful insight into Mr. Trump’s state of mind” toward Carroll.
On Sunday, Kaplan was reassured by Trump attorney Alina Habba that he was “completely informed” of the court’s decisions and “the stringent limitations imposed on his testimony.”
