E. Jean Carrolls Civil Trial Against Trump: What to Know

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Writer E. Jean Carroll testified in a civil trial this week against former President Donald Trump, alleging that he sexually assaulted her more than 25 years ago in a New York department store, and then defamed her. after he spoke about it in 2019.

A prominent 79-year-old former columnist for Elle Magazine, Carroll is one of more than 20 women who have accused the former president of sexual misconduct since the 1980s. Trump has denied all the allegations—including Carroll’s—and few have resulted in legal action. The trial, which resulted from Carroll’s filing of the lawsuit in 2022, began on Tuesday and on Wednesday Carroll testified and underwent an aggressive cross-examination in court by Trump’s attorney.

Here’s what to know about the case.

The allegations

Carroll said Trump, 76, violently attacked and raped her in a changing room at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan in the mid-1990s. Trump has denied the allegations and previously said he had never met Carroll.

Carroll first disclosed the alleged assault to New York magazine in June 2019 while Trump was in office. Trump accused Carroll of lying to boost sales for his upcoming memoir, What Do We Need Men For?, in which Carroll detailed the alleged assault. Carroll filed a defamation lawsuit against the former president in November 2019, saying Trump’s accusation that he was lying was damaging his reputation and career.

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“I am filing this on behalf of every woman who has been harassed, assaulted, silenced, or spoken to only to be shamed, dismissed, ridiculed and belittled,” Carroll said in a statement when the defamation lawsuit was filed in 2019. “No the man in this country must be above the law—including the president.”

Carroll said all the attention she received after speaking out and Trump’s continued insults to her caused her backlash on social media and her job at Elle magazine.

The lawsuit stalled in court for years, until Carroll filed a new lawsuit in November 2022, renewing the defamation lawsuit and including additional statements from Trump. He also added a battery claim after the passage of the Adult Survivors Act—a New York law that allows survivors of adult sexual violence to sue for assaults that occurred decades ago, outside of former statutes of limitations.

Trump has maintained his innocence and released a statement to the Truth Social in October 2022 saying, “Carroll is not telling the truth, is a woman I have nothing to do with, do not know, and have no interest in knowing if I had a chance.” He added that Carroll was “not his type.”

Carroll is seeking an unspecified amount of money in the case.

The test

On Tuesday, Carroll’s attorney, Shawn Crowley, described in opening statements what Carroll said about how she and Trump bumped into each other at the department store, and while the two were in the dressing room, Trump pushed her against a wall and sexually assaulted. him. On Wednesday, Carroll took the stand with a detailed account of the alleged assault.

“I’m here because Donald Trump raped me and when I wrote this, he said it didn’t happen. He lied and ruined my reputation. I’m here to try to get my life back together,” Carroll said in court.

Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, questioned Carroll for hours, in an apparent attempt to cast doubt on Carroll’s story. He asked Carroll detailed questions about why he didn’t yell and how he claimed to try and fight Trump. “I’m telling you, he raped me, whether I screamed or not,” Carroll told the court.

The presiding judge, United States District Judge Lewis Kaplan, reprimanded Tacopina, at one point calling the lawyer’s questions “argumentative.” The judge also warned that Trump needs to tone down his constant criticism of Carroll on social media that continued this week.

In court, Tacopina emphasized Carroll’s uncertainty about the exact date of the alleged assault, arguing that it would be impossible for Trump to explain his alibi without a specific time. Tacopina also suggested that Carroll had a political motive to sue Trump, given his history of voting for Democrats.

The nine jurors (six men and three women) presiding over the case were chosen out of 100, and were scheduled to remain anonymous throughout the trial.

“If the identities of the jurors were disclosed, there would be a strong possibility of unwanted media attention on the jurors, attempts at influence, and/or of harassment or worse of the jurors by supporters of Mr. Trump,” Kaplan wrote in a March ruling.

It’s unclear whether Trump will appear in court for the trial after Tacopina told the judge she wasn’t sure. On Tuesday, Kaplan told Tacopina that he needed to know by Friday for security reasons if Trump would show up.

On Wednesday’s Truth Social, Trump continued to call the case a “made up scam” and a “witch hunt. election. Trump also denied any wrongdoing in the case.

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