Donald Trump, the Ex-Potus is facing a slew of legal woes bothering on the rape of a prominent former American columnist, who says he raped her in the 1990s.
This trial has threatened his re-election bid and as well derailed his 2024 run for a second term in the White House, although he denies the allegations.
Accordingly, in a trial that is likely to last between one to two weeks, Jury selection is scheduled to start Tuesday in a civil trial pitting Donald Trump against a prominent former American columnist, who says he raped her in the 1990s.
A suit filed by E. Jean Carroll, 79, says Trump sexually assaulted her in a New York department store and then maligned her after she went public with the allegations years later.
This trial is coming just weeks after his historic arraignment on illegal charges related to a hush-money payment made to a porn star just before the 2016 election.
Jean, a former columnist for Elle magazine, says she was raped by Trump in the changing room at the luxury Bergdorf Goodman department store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in the mid-1990s.
She said the attack came after Trump asked her for shopping advice. Jean first made the allegation in an excerpt from her book published by New York Magazine in 2019.
However, Trump responded then by saying he never met Jean, that she was “not my type†and that she was “totally lying.â€
Trump was first sued by Jean for defamation in 2019 but was unable to include the rape claim because the statute of limitations for the alleged offense had expired.
But a new law took effect in November last year in New York that gives redress to victims of sexual assault decades after attacks may have occurred.
It gave sexual assault victims in the state a one-year window to sue their alleged abusers even when the abuse occurred long ago.
Lawyers for Jean 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 where he denied the alleged rape and referred to Jean as a “complete con job.â€
The suit seeks nameless compensatory and punitive damages for psychological harm, pain and suffering, loss of dignity, and damage to her reputation.
Trump is not expected to testify as Jean’s lawyers have said they do not intend to call him to the witness stand.
In addition, he 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.