NEW YORK: A civil trial over an allegation that ex-president Donald Trump raped a prominent former American columnist E. Jean Carroll three decades ago started Tuesday with jury selection.
The writer has accused the former US president of sexually assaulting her in a New York department store and then defaming her when she went public with the allegation years later.
Donald Trump, facing a number of legal hurdles threatening to derail his 2024 run for a second presidential term, has denied the accusations.
The start of the trial, which stems from a lawsuit Carroll filed against Trump, comes just weeks after Trump’s historic indictment in a case related to a hush-money payment made to adult star Stormy Daniels.
The former columnist says Trump raped her in the changing room at a department store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in 1995 or 1996.
The attack came after Trump asked her for advice on buying a women’s lingerie gift, the 79-year-old said.
Carroll, who was in court for the beginning of proceedings Tuesday, first made the allegation in an excerpt from her book published by New York Magazine in 2019.
Trump had said at the time that he never met her and that she was “not my type” and that she was “totally lying.”
In 2019, Trump was initially sued by Carroll for defamation but was unable to include the rape claim because the statute of limitations for the alleged offence had expired.
However, a new law passed in November last year provided victims of sexual assault a one-year window to sue their abusers decades after attacks may have ensued.
Lawyers for Carroll filed a new suit that accused Trump of battery, “when he forcibly raped and groped” her.
It also included defamation for a post that Trump made on his Truth Social platform in October where he denied the alleged rape and referred to Carroll as a “complete con job.”
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.”
It also asks that Trump retracts his comments.
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.
No criminal prosecution can stem from the Carroll case but if Trump loses it will be the first time he has ever been held legally liable for an allegation of sexual assault.
