Rape Allegation Against Trump Heads To Civil Trial
A civil trial over an allegation that ex-United States President Donald Trump raped a prominent former American columnist three decades ago got underway Tuesday with jury selection.
The beginning of the trial, which stems from a lawsuit Carroll filed against Trump, comes weeks after Trump’s historic arraignment on criminal charges related to a hush-money payment made to a porn star.
Carroll, a former columnist for Elle magazine, revealed that she was raped by Trump in the changing room at the luxury Bergdorf Goodman department store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in 1995 or 1996.
The now-79-year-old said the attack came after Trump asked her for advice on buying a women’s lingerie gift.
Carroll, who was in court for the start of proceedings Tuesday, first made the allegation in an excerpt from her book published by New York Magazine in 2019.
Trump responded then by saying he has never met her, that she was “not my type” and that she was “totally lying.”
Carroll initially sued Trump for defamation in 2019 but was unable to include the rape claim because the statute of limitations for the alleged offense had expired.
However, a new law took effect in November last year in New York that gave victims of sexual assault a one-year window to sue their alleged abusers decades after attacks may have occurred.
Lawyers for Carroll filed a new suit that accused Trump of battery, “when he forcibly raped and groped” her.
It also included defamation for a post that Trump made on his Truth Social platform in October where he denied the alleged rape and referred to Carroll as a “complete con job.”
