Trump appears in court as author Jean Carroll is set to testify against him

New York, Jan 17 (IANS) Former U.S. President Donald Trump appeared in a federal court to face author E. Jean Carroll who is testifying against him in a sexual abuse and defamation case, which occurred over 30 years ago.  

A jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll last year. 

On Wednesday, the testimony was begun by E. Jean Carroll's in her damages trial against Donald Trump, with the writer on the witness stand and the former president, who was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming her, in the courtroom. 

Carroll (80) will tell the New York federal court jury how her life turned upside down after Trump, then the president, repeatedly slammed her publicly after she first came forward in 2019 with allegations that he sexually assaulted her in a dressing room in a Manhattan department store in 1996, media reports said. 

“Ms. Carroll will tell you that there has not been a day that’s gone by since Donald Trump first defamed her that she has not been afraid. She’ll tell you how, in some ways, it’s actually changed the way she has lived her life," her attorney Shawn Crowley told jurors in her opening statement.

Trump “didn’t just deny the assault” when Carroll broke her silence in a 2019 book — “he went much, much further," Crowley said. 

“Trump said he had no idea who she was. 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. 

“Trump was president when he made these statements, and he used the world's biggest microphone to attack Ms. Carroll, to humiliate her and to destroy her reputation," Crowley said. 

Trump (77) was found liable last year for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her after he left the White House in a separate civil trial and was hit with a $5 million verdict, which he has contested. 

The U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan used that verdict to find Trump liable for the remarks he made while he was president, as well, so the jury in the current case will be deciding only what amount of damages to award her. 

Crowley told the jurors that Trump had continued his attacks since the last verdict, including posting comments in his social media handle Truth Social while he was in court. 

--IANS

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