WASHINGTON: Fresh off his victory in the Iowa Republican caucuses, Donald Trump arrived in a Manhattan courtroom for the next high-stakes trial of his crowded legal calendar – this time in a defamation lawsuit by E. Jean Carroll, the writer who won a separate sexual-abuse case against him last year.
US district judge Lewis Kaplan, who is overseeing the trial, has already held Trump liable for defaming Carroll, leaving it for a jury to decide how much damages he must pay the former Elle magazine columnist. Jury selection began Tuesday, just hours after Trump cruised to victory in the first contest of the 2024 election season.
Carroll is seeking at least $12 million in compensation for damage to her reputation, plus unspecified punitive damages that can easily soar in such cases.