Tuesday is anticipated to see Donald Trump return to court in New York for a civil lawsuit in which he has already been found guilty of defaming and assaulting the writer E. Jean Carroll.
In May of last year, a jury found that in 1996, Trump had sexually attacked her in the changing room of a department shop in New York.
It declared her allegation to be “a complete con job” and gave her an award of about $2 million for the assault and $3 million for defamation for Trump’s remark in 2022.
The trial on Tuesday will focus on the amount of money that Trump ought to be compelled to pay for various statements he made about Carroll when he was president in 2019. She is requesting damages totaling $10 million.
Just one day after Trump’s historic victory in the Iowa caucuses, which marked the start of the Republican presidential nomination process, the second trial begins with jury selection, taking place ahead of the New Hampshire primary.
The overwhelming favorite to win the Republican nomination, Trump, announced last week that he intended to go in person and take on the 80-year-old Carroll. In the first trial, he didn’t act in this way.
According to US media, he is scheduled to attend Tuesday’s inaugural session before going to a New Hampshire campaign event.
In a letter submitted to the court, it is stated that Trump, 77, asked for a postponement so he could miss his mother-in-law Amalija Knavs’s funeral on Thursday in Florida.
But Judge Lewis Kaplan refused, pointing out that Trump was still planning to meet with supporters in New Hampshire.
Last week the former president continued to insist of Carroll that “I never saw this woman in my life.”
“I have no idea who this woman is,” said Trump, who variously has called her a liar, “a wack job” and “not my type.”
With Tuesday’s trial included, Trump is involved in at least six criminal and civil proceedings, two of which are related to his attempts to get his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden overturned.
Trump has delivered venomous speeches accusing judges and prosecutors of attempting to prevent him from winning a second term as president. He claims he is the victim of political persecution.
The judge ruled that the identities of the jurors would remain confidential due to the intense emotion surrounding Trump’s trials, which have resulted in death threats against court officials in his civil fraud case who he has publicly insulted.
Additionally, he forewarned that the only thing at stake would be the harm that Trump’s remarks—which Kaplan has already declared to be “defamatory,” “false,” and “malicious”—caused Carroll.
Trump cannot introduce any evidence to argue he did not sexually assault her and that he did not defame her, the judge has said.