A day after his big win in Iowa, Donald Trump will appear in New York civil court on Tuesday in a second defamation lawsuit brought by an author who had already convicted him of sexual assault in the 1990s.
• Read also: Donald Trump wins the Iowa Republican primary
More favored than ever in the Republican primary after easily winning the Midwestern state caucus, Donald Trump, 77, announced last week that he would come in person to defend himself in New York against former American She magazine columnist Elizabeth Jean Carroll, 80 years old. Years.
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And try once again to turn his judicial setbacks into a political platform to denounce the “witch hunt” of which he claims to be the victim.
Arriving in his procession of black limousines in snowy Lower Manhattan – the first time in New York in 700 days – Donald Trump sat at the defense table with his lawyers and facing his accuser.
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According to the American judicial press that had access to the courtroom, the two protagonists did not even exchange a glance.
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“Never seen”
“I have never seen this woman in my life (…) I have no idea who she is,” Donald Trump reiterated on Thursday regarding the writer, who he continued to describe as a liar, or “crazy”, despite her sensational civil attitude. she was sentenced last May to pay him five million dollars for sexual assault in 1996 and defamation in 2022.
The plaintiff’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, wrote to the judge expressing concern that the Republican might turn the hearing into a “circus” and “attempt to sow chaos.”
Targeted by at least six civil and criminal trials, the wealthy businessman has transformed each of his accusations or appearances into a political platform, multiplying his virulent invectives against judges, prosecutors and President Joe Biden’s Democratic camp whom he accuses of wanting . to prevent him from winning the presidential elections in November.
“It’s not me they’re targeting. It’s you,” she proclaims in capital letters on his site, addressing his supporters.
Tuesday’s trial will begin with civil jury selection and is expected to last several days.
It’s kind of an act 2.
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On May 9, 2023, 12 jurors of the same federal civil court in Manhattan unanimously decided that Donald Trump was responsible for a “sexual assault” against Jean Carroll in 1996 in the dressing room of a New York department store hotel, and that he had also defamed her in October 2022.
Jurors sentenced Donald Trump, who appealed and was never prosecuted in this case, to five million dollars in damages.
Viola
But Carroll had also filed a defamation suit for previous statements by Donald Trump, in June 2019, in the aftermath of his first rape allegations contained in a book.
Then president of the United States, he stated that the author, who was “not his type”, had invented everything to “sell a new book”. The proceedings had been delayed by procedural battles, but a second trial was still expected.
In a sign of the tensions surrounding Donald Trump’s trials, Judge Lewis Kaplan (who is not related to attorney Roberta Kaplan) imposed anonymity on jurors. He also warned “that the only issue at stake in the trial will be the harm caused to Ms Carroll by the comments” which he already considers “defamatory”, “false” and “harmful”.
E. Jean Carroll is asking for at least ten million dollars in compensation for the moral and professional damage suffered.
In the midst of the primary campaign, the trial will once again raise the question of Donald Trump’s behavior towards women, accused several times of sexual violence, but never criminally convicted.
2024-01-16 15:50:20
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