And former President Trump is making a stop in court
ahead of the New Hampshire primary.
He said to stand trial in New York to determine
whether he'll have to pay additional damages for defaming writer
E Jean Carroll when he denied her claims that he
raped her in the 90s and then mocked her while
he was president in 2019.
A jury in the same courthouse already found him liable
for sexually assaulting Carroll in a department store dressing room
in the 90s and for defaming her in
2022. The judge says that earlier verdict established the sexual
assault and defamation occurred as Carol alleged.
So this second trial will determine what damages,
if any, Trump has to pay for defaming her on
two other occasions.
Let's bring in senior investigative correspondent Erika Tursky outside court
along with ABC News legal contributor Brian Buckmeyer for more.
Aaron Trump is appealing this earlier ruling that found him
liable of defamation and sexual assault.
So how could that affect this trial?
It won't. The judge has already determined that the the
defamation and the sexual assault occurred,
so the only issue at this trial is whether and
how much Trump might have to pay E Jean Carroll
for defaming her on other occasions.
Trump arrived at this courthouse a short while ago as
motorcade
pulled in underground, so we didn't get to see the
former president,
but we have had a look at him in court.
He seated 2 tables behind E Jean Carroll,
who he has continued to disparage,
most recently saying that he doesn't know who she is,
despite the jury's earlier finding last May that he sexually
assaulted her in a department store dressing room back in
the
1990s. Diane, the case is already
underway with jury selection and it's already combative with Trump's
defense attorneys making several motions and arguments that the judge
is denying making it clear that that Trump's with him
in the room, it's going to be,
it's going to be perky today in court.
All right Brian, jury selection begins today.
So how challenging is that in a case like this?
It's going to be very challenging because we're not arguing
whether or not he defamed or sexually assaulted Asian Carroll
because that's already been decided.
It's all about dollar amount.
So for Trump's team, it's going to be about OK,
we want to re litigate some of these issues to
whatever extent the judge allows us that will afford us
the opportunity to lower that dollar amount as much as
possible. But who's going to believe the story when the
judge is already curtailing the information coming in?
And so for the for aging
Carroll, I think it's going to be pretty good.
Easy pick whoever is just going to count the numbers.
For Donald Trump's team, it's a difficult task.
Aaron, what's at stake in this trial?
What sort of penalty could Trump have to pay here?
Money. E Jean Carroll is asking for at least $10
million
in damages, plus more unspecified damages.
So she is looking for a significant amount of money
in addition to the
$5,000,000 in damages the other jury awarded her
back in May. That money's in escrow while Trump appeals
the case
because he believes he shouldn't have to pay anything to
E Jean Carroll.
But a trial that could last only a couple 3
days
is a lot riding on it financially for the former
president,
and he still has a campaign to run.
But as we've talked about on a number of occasions,
Diane, his legal challenges and his political case at this
point are one and the same.
The arrival here at court just 12 hours after his
victory in the Iowa caucuses really tells you what
this campaign and what this campaign season for Donald Trump
are all about.
Brian, the judge has cleared the way for Trump to
testify if he wants to.
How likely is he, do you think,
to take the stand? And what happens if he gets
up there and says,
listen, this whole assault never happened given that has already
been decided in court?
Well, the great thing about this is we've seen this
already last week with a with a civil case in
New York where Judge Engeron said you can testify but
only these limited situations. And Trump went up there and
didn't testify or or give a closing in that limited
situation.
I would expect the same thing here.
He'd get up there, professors,
innocence, professors ever happened. Professor doesn't know who EG and
Carroll is.
And I think ultimately a judge will shut him down
and say,
you know what, we're done.
I'm going to maybe wipe that from the record
jury. Ignore that. I think the big difference between a
civil case in this case,
though, is there's a jury.
So the judge is really looking to try to curtail
how much of A circus this is going to be
for the purpose of the jury really only deciding the
relevant information. All right. Erika Chursky,
Brian Buchmeyer, Thank you both.