By Michael R. Sisak and Larry Neumeister | Associated Press
NEW YORK — Donald Trump shook his head in disgust Tuesday as the judge in his New York defamation trial told prospective jurors that another jury had already decided the former president sexually abused columnist E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s.
Fresh from a political win 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 found he had sexually abused Carroll and awarded her $5 million in damages. In light of that verdict, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan told prospective jurors the trial beginning Tuesday 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 ex-president was sitting at the defense table, flanked by his lawyers, about a dozen feet (3.7 meters) from Carroll and her legal team. They didn’t appear to speak or make eye contact.
As the day began, Kaplan rejected the defense’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 defense with pretrial evidence rulings they contend were favorable to Carroll.
“I am not stopping him from being there,” the judge said, referring to the funeral.
Trump lawyer Alina Habba responded: “No, you’re stopping him from being here.”
Habba told the judge that Trump plans to…
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