Trump's trial in E. Jean Carroll defamation case begins

Trump’s courthouse attendance Tuesday — where he attended jury selection but did not speak — came one day after his resounding Iowa caucuses win, yet another illustration of how Trump’s campaign and legal fortunes are intertwined.

Trump watched as prospective jurors were asked about their political donations to him and his political opponents, whether they believed the 2020 election was stolen and how they got their news. He left court before opening statements to travel to New Hampshire for a campaign event Tuesday evening with the primary one week away.

• Carroll's attorney argues for ‘very significant’ damages sum: Carroll’s lawyer Shawn Crowley told the jury Trump’s attacks on her client when he was president “unleashed his followers” and caused her to receive threats. “Trump was president when he made those statements, and he used the world’s biggest microphone to attack Ms. Carroll to humiliate her and to destroy her reputation,” Crowley said. The lawyer argued that the damages awarded to Carroll “should be significant, very significant."
• Trump's attorney says Carroll has prospered since the allegations came out: Trump attorney Alina Habba argued that Carroll’s reputation was not harmed by Trump and that her career prospered since she came forward with the sexual assault allegations. Habba told the jury to remember, “This case is not about assault. We had that case. This case is about the defamation.” Carroll waited for the opportune time to publicly share her story to maximize coverage, Trump’s lawyer claimed.
• Jurors are familiar with Trump: Two of the prospective jurors said they agreed with Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election had been stolen. Three potential jurors said they donated to Trump or groups supporting him. All three said that wouldn’t affect their ability to be fair and impartial. None of those prospective jurors were ultimately selected for the trial jury. More than 10 said they’d donated to Biden and other top Democrats. Three prospective jurors said they believe Trump is being treated unfairly by the US court system. A male juror in the gallery stood to answer that question before it was his turn.
• What’s next in the trial: Carroll is slated to testify Wednesday in the trial, which is expected to last a few days. Trump’s lawyers have also indicated he plans to testify, although Trump has changed his mind on testifying before in other trials. The judge has limited the testimony in the case to damages and harm, ruling that the jury’s verdict in the first defamation trial will also carry over to this case.

Former President Donald Trump's defamation trial has wrapped for the day following jury selection and opening statements.

E. Jean Carroll is expected to testify Wednesday. The trial's jury is considering how much to award her in damages for defamatory statements Trump made in 2019 about her sexual assault allegations.

Donald Trump attorney Alina Habba said in her opening statement that E. Jean Carroll’s career has prospered since she went forward with her sexual assault allegations, arguing that Carroll was trying to seek “a windfall” over “mean tweets.”

"The other side will attempt to paint Ms. Carroll as someone who lost everything because President Trump stood up and defended himself when he was publicly accused of assault," Habba said. But in reality, Trump’s lawyer argued, “Her career has prospered, and she has been thrust back into the limelight like she always has wanted.”

Carroll turned around in her chair to look at Habba when she made the statement. Habba told the jury to remember, "This case is not about assault. We had that case. This case is about the defamation." Carroll waited for the opportune time to maximize coverage, Trump's lawyer claimed.

"Now she wants President Trump to pay for the risks she took for the way she did this,” Habba said of Carroll. “She wants President Trump to pay for the mean tweets.”

Habba also made a point to stress that this case is about only two statements made by Trump in 2019 — not all the other statements he continues to make more recently that Crowley referenced in her opening.

“Here she is looking for you to give her a windfall because some people on social media said mean things about her,” Habba added. “But in today’s day and age, the internet always has something to say, and it's not always going to be nice. Imagine if every time a public person got a mean tweet, they could get money.”

Carroll doesn’t want to change her reputation, Habba argued, “She likes her new brand.” “Her alleged emotional harm did not stop her from going on TV again and again and again."

A lawyer for E. Jean Carroll urged the jury to award a “very significant” amount in damages to her client.

Nine jurors will decide how much money in damages — if any — former President Donald Trump must pay to the magazine columnist for his defamatory statements about her sexual assault allegations made in 2019. Carroll is seeking more than $10 million in damages.

“You will also be asked to decide how much money Donald Trump should have to pay as punishment for what he's done and to deter him and others are doing and again,” lawyer Shawn Crowley said during open statements.

Crowley said that the damages “number should be significant, very significant.”

Crowley argued that Trump has ruined Carroll's reputation and caused her to "live every day of her life in fear of the hate and the threats that she gets from his followers."

E. Jean Carroll's lawyers say that she plans to testify about how she now lives in fear during the defamation damages trial against former President Donald Trump.

"She's afraid, she's afraid that someday somebody’s going to make good on their threats,” Carroll lawyer Shawn Crowley said during opening statements on Tuesday.

Crowley said not only did Trump's comments "destroy her sense of safety" but they also damaged her professional reputation and writing, and television appearances largely dried up.

"Much of that was ruined when Donald Trump went after her,” Crowley said, adding that Trump's attacks on her client continue to this day.

The lawyer said Trump "posted more defamatory statements, more lies about Ms. Carroll and this case" while he was in the courthouse Tuesday morning.

"By our last count, 22 posts just today. Think about that. Think about that when you consider how much money it will take Donald Trump to stop," Crowley said.

Trump's lawyers may use television appearances to argue that Carroll was drawing attention to herself, but Crowley told the jury not to let it sway them.

Shawn Crowley, an attorney for E. Jean Carroll, began his opening statement in Donald Trump’s defamation trial by telling the jury that a previous jury already found that the former president had sexually assaulted Carroll.

“Donald Trump sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll. He managed to get her alone in an empty department store one evening and sexually assaulted her. That’s a fact,” Crowley said. “That fact has been proven and a jury sitting in the exact seats where you’re sitting now found that it happened."

Crowley said Trump’s defamatory statements about the 1990s assault more than two decades later upended Carroll’s life.

“He didn’t just deny the assault he went much, much further,” Crowley said. “He accused her of lying and making up a story to make money and to advance some political conspiracy against him and he threatened her. He said she should pay dearly for speaking out against him."

Carroll’s lawyer said Trump’s statements “unleashed his followers” and caused Carroll to receive threats, saying that she should go to jail and that "she should die because she had the courage to speak out about what Donald Trump had done to her." Crowley said that Carroll will testify tomorrow.

Donald Trump has departed the Manhattan federal courthouse and is on his way to a New Hampshire event ahead of next week's primary.

The former president voluntarily attended jury selection in a civil trial to decide how much money in damages, if any, he must pay E. Jean Carroll for his 2019 defamatory statements about her sexual assault allegations.

Trump has not indicated if he will attend Wednesday's session. He has announced he will miss Thursday's hearing due to the scheduled funeral of Melania Trump's mother.

A jury of nine people has been selected in the trial to decide how much money in damages, if any, former president Donald Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll for his 2019 defamatory statements about Carroll’s sexual assault allegations.

The trial will run later than the normal 4:30 p.m. ET stop time if necessary to complete opening statements, Judge Lewis Kaplan indicated.

Attorneys for E. Jean Carroll and Donald Trump will soon begin to strike jurors they want removed until they have a pool of nine.

These nine jurors will ultimately decide how much money in damages — if any — the former president must pay to the magazine columnist for his defamatory statements about her sexual assault allegations made in 2019.