After winning the Iowa caucuses last night, Donald Trump flew to Lower Manhattan to attend day one of the second civil trial involving writer E. Jean Carroll's claims of sexual assault by the former president.
Trump maintains that he never met Carroll, who accused him of sexual assaulting her in the mid-1990s. She later sued Trump for defamation and battery. On May 9, 2023, a jury found Trump liable and awarded Carroll $5 million in damages – $2 million for battery and $3 million for defamation.
Judge Lewis Kaplan later found Trump liable in a second lawsuit brought by Carroll following comments the GOP front-runner made at a CNN town hall one day after being found liable of sexually abusing Carroll and then defaming her.
On Sunday, Kaplan rejected evidence that Trump's attorneys planned to include during the civil trial, declaring it “irrelevant.”
According to Newsweek, “Trump's legal team cannot present an interview to the jury that Carroll did with CNN's Anderson Cooper in 2019 or suggest that Carroll hoped to ‘garner media attention' for her book in order to boost sales as a way to discredit her”:
The former Elle columnist is suing Trump over claims he defamed her character while denying that he sexually assaulted her at a New York department store dressing room in the 1990s, including saying in 2019 that “she's not my type,” and that Carroll made up the attack to sell copies of her book. Kaplan ruled in September 2023 that Trump had defamed Carroll and the civil trial that is to begin on Tuesday, January 16, will serve to determine the damages the latter is owed.
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Ahead of the civil trial, Kaplan said that Trump's lawyers could not try and argue to the jury that the former president did not rape or sexually assault Carroll, as it was not relevant to the defamation case.
Carroll's lawyers then wrote to the judge accusing the former president's attorneys of trying to “circumvent” the ruling by introducing evidence that would try and “prejudice” Carroll's versions of events or attack her character.
This includes a 2019 interview Carroll did on CNN in which she said that “most people think of rape as sexy” and they “think of the fantasies.” Trump has frequently misconstrued these comments to suggest that Carroll enjoyed being sexually assaulted, or thinks rape is “sexy” rather than discussing views others may hold.
Carroll is seeking $10 million in damages. Nine jurors will ultimately decide how much money – if any – she's owed.
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