Trump plans to attend E. Jean Carroll defamation trial, NYC jury to decide further damages

NEW YORK — Donald Trump is set to face a second Manhattan trial against E. Jean Carroll today — and plans to address a jury that will decide how much more he owes the writer who already won millions in damages after proving he sexually abused and defamed her.

The former president notified the court last week that he plans to attend the defamation trial, which begins with jury selection today. Trump’s lawyers failed to convince the judge to delay it by a week so he could attend his mother-in-law’s funeral in Florida without sacrificing an opportunity to testify.

But Manhattan federal court Judge Lewis Kaplan, in an order Sunday, told Trump’s lawyers he would allow him to testify in his own defense next week even if they finish their case before then. He pointed out that the funeral wasn’t the only thing conflicting with the trial, noting Trump has a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Wednesday that he didn’t mention.

Trump left everyone guessing whether he’d turn up at the last trial, claiming to reporters at his golf course in Ireland that he would cut a trip short to make it back to defend himself. Kaplan gave him multiple opportunities to change his mind, but Trump never followed through.

He was found liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman changing room in 1996 and defaming her as a “complete con job” on Truth Social post-presidency by a Manhattan federal court jury at the first trial last May and ordered to pay her $5 million in damages. That trial covered the second of two lawsuits the former Elle columnist has filed against Trump in recent years. She brought it in late 2022 after New York’s Adult Survivors Act enabled her to sue Trump for battery.

Following the jury’s findings, Kaplan ruled in September that Trump was also liable for defamation in the original lawsuit as the comments in question were substantially the same, and the second trial would only address damages.

The years-old lawsuit was heavily delayed by Trump’s failed appeals, which argued that he couldn’t be sued for things he said when he was president. The Justice Department under his administration and President Biden’s backed his argument for over a year before abandoning support after his trial loss. He’s also trying to claim presidential immunity in his election interference case. The D.C. Circuit federal appeals court heard arguments on the matter last Tuesday.

After he lost at trial last year, Trump continued to defame Carroll the very next day on a CNN town hall broadcast, saying she was a “wack job” who made the whole thing up. Carroll then added another defamation claim to her outstanding lawsuit, in which she’s seeking another $10 million in compensation and millions more in punitive damages.