THE NEW DAILY
Donald Trump has shaken his head in disgust as a judge in his New York defamation trial told prospective jurors that another jury had already decided the former US president sexually abused columnist E Jean Carroll in the 1990s.
Fresh from a political win on Monday in the Iowa caucuses, the Republican presidential frontrunner detoured to a Manhattan courtroom for what amounts to the penalty phase of a civil defamation lawsuit stemming from Carroll’s claims he sexually attacked her in a department store dressing room.
Prospective jurors were told the trial was likely to last three to five days.
Opening statements come next.
Trump did not attend the previous trial in the case last May, when a jury concluded he had sexually abused Carroll and awarded her $US5 million ($7.6 million) in damages.
In light of that verdict, Judge Lewis A Kaplan told prospective jurors the trial beginning on Tuesday (local time) would focus only on how much money, if any, Trump must pay Carroll for comments he made about her while president in 2019.
For purposes of the new trial, it had already been determined that Trump “did sexually assault Ms Carroll”, Kaplan said, prompting Trump to shake his head from side to side.
The former president was sitting at the defence table, flanked by his lawyers, about four metres from Carroll and her legal team.
They did not appear to speak or make eye contact.
As the day began, Kaplan rejected the defence’s request to suspended the trial on Thursday so Trump could attend his mother-in-law’s funeral – part of a combative exchange in which Trump’s lawyers accused the judge of thwarting their defence with pre-trial…
