A civil trial for a charge of assault and defamation against Donald Trump opened on Tuesday, April 25 in New York, following complaints by a former press columnist, E. Jean Carroll, for facts dating back to the mid 1990s.
Nine jurors, six men and three women, selected Tuesday in a federal court in Manhattan, will try to shed light on this case, where two diametrically opposed versions clash. Proof of the sensitive nature of the trial, which should last between five and ten days, Judge Lewis Kaplan guaranteed that the jurors would see their anonymity preserved, to avoid any pressure.
Since 2019, E. Jean Carroll and his attorneys have alleged that the former President of the United States, who is not physically present in court, “groped, groped and raped her” after luring her into the cabin. fitting in a New York department store, on a date which she no longer remembers but which dates back to “the spring of 1996”.
“Nothing was funny anymore”
“The moment they got inside [the cabin], everything changed. Suddenly, nothing was funny anymore, “said one of the plaintiff’s lawyers, Shawn Crowley, at the opening of the proceedings. “Trump was almost twice his height,” she added.
The lawyer explained that the columnist had kept silent for twenty years, for fear of seeing her reputation destroyed by a powerful man. But in the wake of the movement
Donald Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, blasted “an affront to justice.” “She abuses the system for money, for political reasons and for her status,” he continued, in front of E. Jean Carroll, 79, who stared at him.
But, aware that the figure of Donald Trump, absent at the opening of the proceedings, and probably throughout the trial, could cause rejection in New York, he was careful to throw to the jurors: “You can hate Donald Trump, c is OK (…) But not here, in a court. The jury will have to determine the amount of reparations to possibly be awarded to the writer.
At 76, the former tenant of the White House (2017-2021) dreams of being re-elected in November 2024, but he sees the legal cases piling up. In early April, in unprecedented history for a former US president, he was criminally charged in New York with 34 accounting and tax frauds related to payments to cover up embarrassing deals ahead of the 2016 presidential election, including one sexual relationship with porn actress, Stormy Daniels, which he has always denied.
“She’s not my type”
E. Jean Carroll first filed a libel suit against the 2019 President of the United States because he called his accusations a “complete lie”. His lawyers had claimed that he was protected, in 2019, by his immunity as head of state. But in November 2022, a New York State law came into force allowing, for one year, victims of sexual assault to relaunch their civil legal action, even if the facts were prescribed in criminal proceedings.
E. Jean Carroll then filed a new civil complaint for “defamation” but also “assault” and “assault”. Judge Lewis Kaplan recalled that Mr. Trump was not criminally prosecuted for rape, but that the “assault” could be characterized by “unjustified touching without the consent of the person concerned”.
During testimony during the proceedings, Donald Trump had reaffirmed his line of defense: “I will say this with the greatest respect: first, she is not my type; then it never happened. “But, in front of a photo where he appeared with E. Jean Carroll at a reception years before the facts, Mr. Trump had confused his accuser with … his former wife, the actress Marla Maples, with whom he was married in 1993 in 1999. The Republican billionaire has been accused of sexual assault by other women on several occasions in the past, which he has always denied.
