Trump’s civil trial over Carroll rape claim begins Tuesday: Five things to know

Jury selection begins on Tuesday in former President Trump’s civil trial over writer E. Jean Carroll’s claims that Trump raped her in a New York City department store in the mid-1990s. 

Carroll went public with her accusations, which Trump denies, while he was serving in the White House. The trial this week involves Carroll attempting to prove that Trump committed sexual battery and defamation for a statement he made in October 2022 in which he called the case “a complete con job.”

As the trial gets underway, here are five things to know.

Carroll’s claims

Carroll says she encountered Trump in the fall of 1995 or the spring of 1996 at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in midtown Manhattan. 

Carroll claims Trump asked for help buying a present for “a girl,” and they soon ended up in a dressing room, where Trump then allegedly raped her.

Her story first went public on June 21, 2019, when New York magazine published an excerpt from Carroll’s forthcoming book at the time.

“Hideous Men: Donald Trump assaulted me in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room 23 years ago. But he’s not alone on the list of awful men in my life,” the headline read.

Trump immediately denied the allegations, and he has since repeatedly attacked Carroll’s credibility and appearance.

“I’ll say it with great respect: Number one, she’s not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?” Trump told The Hill in an exclusive interview shortly after the story surfaced.

Beyond the purported assault itself, Carroll’s lawsuit also includes a count of defamation over a statement Trump posted to Truth Social and distributed to the press on Oct. 12, 2022.

“She completely made up a story that I met her at the doors of this crowded New York City Department Store and, within minutes, ‘swooned’ her. It is a Hoax and a lie, just like all the other Hoaxes that have been played on me for the past seven years,” Trump wrote in the post, which followed a judge’s ruling that Trump must sit for a deposition in Carroll’s other suit. In that statement, he also called the case “a complete con job.”

Witnesses expected to take the stand

The trial, expected to last roughly one to two weeks, will take place in a federal courthouse in lower Manhattan, one block from where Trump was arraigned on 34 state criminal charges in an unrelated case involving a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Carroll plans to call as witnesses two friends she says she confided in: author Lisa Birnbach and Carol Martin, a longtime news anchor at New York City’s CBS station.

Both are expected to testify that Carroll’s claims are consistent with her private account for more than 25 years.

The jury will also hear from two women who allege Trump sexually assaulted them. Natasha Stoynoff claims Trump during a 2005 People magazine interview pushed her against the wall, kissed and groped her. Jessica Leeds accused Trump of groping her during a flight in 1979. Trump denies both women’s claims, and his lawyers attempted to block them from testifying. 

Also, over Trump’s legal team’s objections, the judge permitted Carroll’s lawyers to play the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape that surfaced ahead of the 2016 presidential election in which Trump is heard saying lewd comments about grabbing women to television host Billy Bush.

The outcome in the Carroll case will largely depend on how jurors assess the credibility of each witness.

“This is, in the vernacular, is a ‘he said, she said’ case, and it is one that turns on an alleged event more than two decades ago. There will be no physical evidence supporting either side at trial,” U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan noted in a pretrial ruling last month.

Trump’s defense 

Trump’s attorneys are likely to highlight the lack of physical evidence supporting Carroll’s claims. No security footage or eyewitnesses to the alleged incident exist. Trump has also repeatedly noted that Carroll cannot remember the exact date.

For either of her claims to be successful, Carroll must convince the jury the assault occurred by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not.

For her claim of defamation to be successful, Carroll must also demonstrate Trump acted with actual malice in issuing the statement.

The former president has further portrayed Carroll as making up the incident to sell her book.

“It’s a big, fat hoax,” Trump said in an October deposition. “She’s a liar and she’s a sick person, in my opinion. Really sick. Something wrong with her.”

Trump may not attend

Carroll will not call Trump to the stand, but Trump’s legal team has listed him as a potential witness in his defense.

Trump attorney Joe Tacopina last week suggested the former president may not attend at all, however, noting the logistical and financial burdens of doing so in a reference to Trump’s recent arraignment in Manhattan.

“Because the decision of the defendant, who is not required to appear as a civil litigant, will be made during the course of the trial, we are not yet in a position to advise the Court in this regard,” Tacopina wrote on Thursday.

“However, we will inform the Court as soon as a decision is reached, particularly in light of the logistical concerns that will need to be addressed in coordination with the Secret Service, the Marshals Service, and the City of New York,” he continued.

Carroll’s other lawsuit

When she originally came forward in 2019, the statute of limitations for the alleged assault itself had passed, so Carroll instead sued Trump for defamation over his denials.

 That first complaint revolves around a written statement given to reporters, comments Trump made on the South Lawn and an interview Trump had with The Hill at the White House three days after the allegation was first published.

But Trump made those statements while serving as president, and the lawsuit has been held up over whether Trump is immune because he was acting within his job duties.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asked the highest local court in Washington, D.C., to weigh in based on the city’s employment laws, but the court effectively punted the question earlier this month.

The trial this week involves Carroll’s second lawsuit. Carroll filed her second complaint the same day a New York law went into effect that gives survivors a one-year window to sue for sexually related offenses, no matter when they occurred.

Carroll’s second lawsuit notably alleges Trump defamed her after his presidency in 2022, so that immunity argument doesn’t apply.