Former American columnist E. Jean Carroll has told a US civil trial hearing that former President Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in the mid-1990s and then "ridiculed" her with defamatory comments.
A US civil trial hearing a lawsuit against former President Donald Trump alleges that he sexually assaulted prominent former American columnist E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s and then "ridiculed" her with defamatory comments. Trump has denied these allegations, and his lawyers claim that Carroll is motivated by money and fame.
Carroll claims that Trump sexually assaulted her in a changing room at the luxury Bergdorf Goodman department store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. According to Carroll's lawyer Shawn Crowley, Trump asked for her advice on buying a women's lingerie gift before the assault took place. "The moment they were inside (the dressing room) everything changed. Suddenly nothing was fun. Trump was almost twice her size," Crowley said.
The trial is not criminal in nature and is part of a barrage of legal woes that threaten to derail Trump's 2024 run for a second presidential term. It comes just weeks after Trump's arraignment on criminal charges related to a hush-money payment made to a porn star.
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Carroll initially sued Trump for defamation in 2019, but was unable to include the rape claim because the statute of limitations for the alleged offense had expired. However, a new law took effect in November last year in New York that gave victims of sexual assault a one-year window to sue their alleged abusers decades after attacks may have occurred.
Lawyers for Carroll filed a new suit that accused Trump of battery, "when he forcibly raped and groped" her. The suit seeks unspecified damages for "significant pain and suffering, lasting psychological and pecuniary harms, loss of dignity and self-esteem, and invasion of her privacy."
Around a dozen women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct. He has denied all the allegations and has never been prosecuted over any of them. If Trump loses the Carroll case, it will be the first time he has ever been held legally liable for an allegation of sexual assault.
Trump has provided sworn testimony in the case but is not expected to take the witness stand during the trial as Carroll's lawyers have said they do not intend to call him. The trial is likely to last one to two weeks. Trump is also being investigated over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the southern state of Georgia, his alleged mishandling of classified documents taken from the White House, and his involvement in the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
