Stone-faced Trump watches as jurors are picked for his second defamation trial involving E. Jean Carroll
A stone-faced Donald Trump appeared in Manhattan court Tuesday fresh off his landslide GOP victory in Iowa to watch jury selection for his second defamation trial involving sex abuse accuser E. Jean Carroll.
The case could cost Trump more than $10 million — but even that did not stop him from posting comments online about Carroll before and during court, including one saying: “Can you believe I have to defend myself against this woman’s fake story?!”
Carroll’s camp Tuesday revealed that she would take the stand Wednesday against the 77-year-old former president, who walloped his Republican presidential opponents in Monday night’s caucuses.
Trump is expected to be there to catch her in person before he testifies later in the case.
Trump was already ordered at a previous trial to pay $5 million to the 80-year-old “Ask E. Jean” advice columnist after jurors in that case found him liable of sexually abusing her in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room in 1996 and then defaming her by writing online in 2022 that her claims were a “complete con job.”
This latest defamation case involves similar comments Trump made against Carroll after she went public about the alleged attack in 2019. A judge has already ruled that Trump defamed Carroll in 2019. The jury is now deciding how much he should pay her for it. Her camp is seeking more than $10 million.
The fresh expected one-week trial is set to feature the now-infamous recording of Trump once boasting to then-“Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush that women “allow” him to grab them “by the p—y” because he’s a “star.”
Lawyers for both sides gave their opening statements Tuesday after the nine-member jury was selected.
Judge Lewis Kaplan asked prospective jurors at one point during the selection process, “Is there anyone who feels that Mr. Trump is being treated unfairly by the court system?”
Trump gave a cheeky half-wave from his seat at the defense table.
Kaplan then quipped, “Well, we know where you stand,” and Trump put his hand down.
As the prospective jurors were being questioned, Trump also turned around, with his left arm draped over his chair, to scan the pool of potential panelists, including some who said they believe the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Nine jurors were eventually picked, including a retired transit worker, a banker, a former teacher, a doctor and publicist.
Trump did not appear to make any eye contact with Carroll, who sat at the table in front of him, during jury selection.
He had arrived in court around 9:45 a.m. and sat down flanked by his lawyers wearing a dark blue suit, white shirt and red tie.
Before jury selection began, Kaplan instructed Trump and Carroll to “not say anything within earshot of any juror … directly or indirectly.”
Court officials ahead of trial also gave strict instructions to anyone attending the proceeding — including members of the public and press — that phones and political signs were not allowed in the courtroom.
“Spectators may not bring into or display in the Courtroom placards, signs, posters or other such writings or graphical material,” a court official wrote. “Spectators also may not wear clothing that displays any messages concerning the litigants or the issues to be tried.”
Trump lawyer Alina Habba and Kaplan also had previously gone back and forth about delaying the start of the trial so that Trump could attend the funeral for his mother-in-law, Amalija Knavs — the mother of former first lady Melania Trump — which would require him to be in Florida on Wednesday and Thursday.
Trump’s side over the weekend asked to postpone the trial for the week, a request that Kaplan denied.
Since the case is civil, Trump is not required to be present in court, as he would be in a criminal case.
A source said he was expected to attend the proceeding again Wednesday but skip Thursday because of Knavs’ funeral.
“I think it is completely unfair — I’ve never seen it frankly that someone has to make a choice to be at their trial … or go to their mother-in-law’s funeral,” Habba had argued to the judge when seeking a delay. “We are again asking for a one-day adjournment.”
Kaplan shot back, “I am not stopping him from being there.”
Habba has told Kaplan that her side plans to call two people to the stand: Carol Martin — a friend who Carroll confided in after she was allegedly sexually assaulted by Trump — and Trump.
Late in the morning Tuesday, dozens of prospective jurors were brought into the courtroom to be quizzed by the judge on a series of questions to help the parties and the jurist whittle down the group for trial by eliminating people who have biases — both for and against the former commander-in-chief.
Kaplan kicked things off by telling the room of potential panelists that “it has been determined already that Mr. Trump did sexually assault Ms. Carroll” — prompting Trump to shake his head.
Jurors at Trump’s previous defamation and abuse trial in May found there to be more than a 50% chance — or a “preponderance of the evidence” — that Trump sexually abused Carroll in the Bergdorf Goodman fitting room in 1996. Trump dodged potential criminal charges in the case because of the statute of limitations.
As for the 2019 defamation claim, Kaplan used the term “actual malice” at the time to describe Trump’s behavior in that case.
Numerous jurors Tuesday morning raised issues that could get them disqualified from serving on the panel, including one woman who said she worked with Trump’s daughter Ivanka and knew her personally and at least three others answering yes to questions suggesting they had sympathy for the 45th president.
Two prospective jurors stood up to acknowledge they thought the 2020 presidential election was stolen, and another pair signaled they thought Trump was being treated “unfairly” by the court system — all opinions which could get them sent home.
Several other potential jurors said they watched Trump’s television show “The Apprentice.”
Trump was not in court for the last trial.
The judge has ruled that if Trump does take the stand as a witness, he won’t be allowed to repeat his prior claims that he does not know Carroll.
Trump and his lawyers also cannot deny in court that he sexually assaulted the writer, according to Kaplan — who Saturday issued a cryptic warning for what might happen if the 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner flouts the order.
“The court will take such measures as it finds appropriate to avoid circumvention of its rulings and of the law,” Kaplan wrote.
Kaplan was appointed by former President Bill Clinton in 1994 and has presided over several newsworthy cases in nearly 30 years on the bench, including the trials of al-Qaeda operatives and members of the Gambino crime family.
Most recently, he served as the judge in the trial of fallen crypto prince Sam Bankman-Fried, whom a jury convicted in November of stealing $10 billion from users of his crypto exchange and lying to lenders and investors.
Kaplan was also the judge in the first Carroll v. Trump civil case.
Trump took to social media Sunday to rip Kaplan as “another Trump hating Judge” and “the terrible, biased, irrationally angry Clinton-appointed Judge in the Bergdorf’s Hoax.
“This Judge has been ruthlessly unfair from the first day of Crooked Joe Biden’s Election Interfering Witch Hunt,” he wrote in a Truth Social post.
At a separate $370 million civil fraud trial in state court — which was heard by a judge rather than a jury — Trump was allowed to deliver uninterrupted rants during his November testimony, insulting the judge and calling New York Attorney General Letitia James a “hack.”
