NY.- In a Manhattan courthouse, a jury began a hearing Tuesday on allegations by E. Jean Carroll that former President Donald J. Trump raped her more than two decades ago in the dressing room of a department store, in a process that seeks to apply the responsibility of the #METoo Era to a dominant political figure.
The trial in US District Court in Manhattan, expected to last one to two weeks, stems from a lawsuit and will take place amid a barrage of legal actions against Trump, who is trying to regain the presidency and He argues that these lawsuits and investigations are intended to remove him from the race.
Initial statements in the case began shortly after 3 p.m.
Shawn Crowley, one of Carroll’s attorneys, told the jury that this case is Carroll’s chance to “clear his name, get justice, and get his life back.”
Carroll, a former magazine columnist, did not say anything publicly about the encounter she had for decades before publishing her 2019 memoir accusing Trump of attacking her.
In the lawsuit, Carroll, who is 79 years old, claims that one afternoon in the mid-1990s, he visited the luxurious Bergdorf Goodman department store, where he used to go shopping.
There he met Trump. The two had met on at least one previous occasion and frequented the same New York City social circles.
He told her that he was going to buy a gift for “a girl” and asked her to advise him. She points out that she accompanied him to the lingerie department where, she claims, he managed to get her into a dressing room and there he raped her.
Trump, who is 76, has denied that he raped Carroll and has repeatedly accused her of lying and attacked her in public statements on social media, both during his presidency and after his term ended.
This Tuesday, Joseph Tacopina, Trump’s lawyer, cast doubt on Carroll’s story. He questioned several details of what Carroll claims: that no one was present, that the dressing room doors were not closed and that Carroll fled without anyone seeing her. He added that there is no police report or medical evidence to corroborate her story because no attack occurred.
Carroll’s attorneys will ask the jury to find Trump liable and, if so, to pay money damages.
