Former US President Donald Trump’s rape trial began today with the selection of jury members, and he was reported by El magazine columnist Jean Carroll, who claims that Trump raped him three decades ago in a changing room in a department store.
The trial is taking place in federal civil court, which practically means that, regardless of the outcome, Trump will not go to prison. He was not in the courtroom today and is not required to attend the trial, and his lawyers have already said that he probably won’t even testify, Voice of America reports.
The trial, however, begins at the time of Trump’s campaign for the presidential candidacy and may cause damage to him. The jury in this case will likely hear reminders of Trump’s misconduct during the 2016 campaign.
Before jury selection began, the judge told lawyers representing Trump and Carroll to tell their clients and witnesses not to make statements that could “incite violence or civil unrest.”
Carroll is scheduled to testify about a meeting with Trump in 1995 or 1996, which she claims ended in sexual violence.
She says she met him at a Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan, that he invited her to go lingerie shopping with him, and that they teased each other about trying something on.
She claims that they ended up in one of the changing rooms, that Tramp pinned her against the wall and raped her, before she managed to break free and run away.
She made those accusations for the first time in her memoirs in 2019, and Trump has denied from the beginning that he raped her, and even that he met her. He said she was “crazy” and “mentally ill” and made up the whole story to boost sales of her book.
Two more women who say Trump sexually harassed them are expected to be heard at this trial.
Jessica Leeds claims that Trump tried to put his hand under her skirt on the plane, when they were sitting next to each other, and former People magazine journalist Nataša Stojnof says that Trump pinned her against the wall and forcibly kissed her, when she interviewed him in 2005 on Florida.
Jurors will also see the famous video from 2005, in which Trump makes misogynistic claims that he can grab a woman by the genitals without asking.
(FoNet)