A civil trial over an allegation that ex-president Donald Trump raped a prominent former American columnist three decades ago got underway Tuesday with jury selection.
The writer E. Jean Carroll says Trump sexually assaulted her in a New York department store and then defamed her after she went public with the allegation years later.
Trump, who is facing a barrage of legal woes that threaten to derail his 2024 run for a second presidential term, has repeatedly denied the allegations.
The start of the trial, which stems from a lawsuit Carroll filed against Trump, comes just 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, says 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.
But 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."
- 'Psychological harm' -
The suit seeks unspecified damages for "significant pain and suffering, lasting psychological and pecuniary harms, loss of dignity and self-esteem, and invasion of her privacy."
It also asks that Trump retracts his comments.
Around a dozen women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct. He has denied all the allegations and has never been prosecuted over any of them.
No criminal prosecution can stem from the Carroll case but if Trump loses it will be the first time he has ever been held legally liable for an allegation of sexual assault.
The trial in Manhattan is likely to last between one to two weeks.
Trump became the first sitting or former president to have ever been charged with a crime when he was arrested in the hush-money case earlier this month.
He pleaded not guilty to 34 counts related to the payment made just before the 2016 election that propelled him to the White House.
Trump is also being investigated over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the southern state of Georgia, his alleged mishandling of classified documents taken from the White House, and his involvement in the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
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© Agence France-Presse
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