A civil lawsuit for a charge of rape and defamation against Donald Trump opened on Tuesday April 25 in New York, following complaints from a former press columnist, E. Jean Carroll, for facts dating back to the mid-1990s and which the former American president strongly denies.
More than 25 years after the events, nine jurors, selected Tuesday in a federal court in Manhattan, will try to shed light on this case, where two diametrically opposed versions clash. The trial is expected to last five to ten days and several witnesses are expected.
Since 2019, E. Jean Carroll and his lawyers have claimed that the former president of the UNITED STATES “groped, groped and raped her” after luring her into the fitting room of a New York department store, Bergdorf Goodman, on a date she no longer remembers but which dates back “in the spring of 1996” .
“Twice Its Size”
“The moment they were inside (the cabin), everything changed. Suddenly, nothing was funny anymore”, launched one of the plaintiff’s lawyers, Shawn Crowley, at the opening of the debates. “Trump was almost twice his size,” she added.
The lawyer explained that the columnist had kept silent for 20 years, for fear of having her reputation destroyed by a powerful man. But in the wake of the movement #MeToothe one who wrote in Elle magazine in the United States had decided to speak in a book in 2019. Two friends, to whom E. Jean Carroll had confided shortly after the facts, will come to corroborate his story at the helm, promised Shawn Crowley.
Donald Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, blasted “an affront to justice”. “She abuses the system for money, for political reasons and for her status,” he continued, in front of E. Jean Carroll, 79, who stared at him.
But, aware that the figure of Donald Trump, absent at the opening of the proceedings, and probably throughout the trial, could cause rejection in New York, he took care to launch to the jurors: “You can hate Donald Trump, c is OK (…) But not here, in a court.”
The jury will have to determine the amount of reparations to possibly be awarded to the writer.
“Not his kind of woman”
At 76, the former tenant of the White House (2017-2021) dreams of being re-elected in November 2024, but he sees the legal cases piling up. At the beginning of April, an unprecedented historical fact for a former American president, he was criminally charged in New York for 34 accounting and tax frauds related to payments to cover up embarrassing business before the 2016 presidential election, including a sexual relationship with porn actress Stormy Daniels which he has always denied.
E. Jean Carroll first filed a libel suit against Donald Trump in 2019 because he called the rape allegations a “complete lie”. Then President of the United States, he added that E. Jean Carroll was “not his kind of woman” and his lawyers claimed that he was protected, in 2019, by his immunity as head of state.
But in November 2022, a New York State law (“Adult Survivors Act”) came into force allowing, for one year, victims of sexual assault to relaunch their civil lawsuit, even if the facts were criminally prescribed. E. Jean Carroll then filed a new civil complaint for “defamation” but also “assault” and “assault”.
During a testimony during the procedure by video link, made public by justice in January, Donald Trump had reaffirmed his line of defense: “I will say it with the greatest respect: first, she is not my type; then it never happened.” But, in front of a photo where he appeared with E. Jean Carroll at a reception years before the facts, Donald Trump had then confused her with his former wife, the actress Marla Maples, with whom he was married from 1993 to 1999 .
In addition to his criminal indictment, he also remains in the crosshairs of justice for his alleged involvement in an attempt to turn the results of the 2020 presidential election in his favor in his favor, and for his role in the assault on the Capitol by his supporters, on January 6, 2021.
With AFP
2023-04-26 00:44:11
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