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A jury in New York City is set to begin deliberations Tuesday in a civil trial over advice columnist E. Jean Carroll’s claims that Donald Trump raped her in a luxury Manhattan department store in 1996.
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan will read instructions on the law to the nine-person jury for about an hour before jurors begin discussing the civil claims of battery and defamation.
If they believe Carroll, jurors can award compensatory and punitive damages. Trump, who did not attend the trial, has insisted he never sexually assaulted Carroll or knew her.
Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, told the jury in closing arguments Monday that Carroll’s story is too far fetched to be believed. He said she made it up to fuel sales of a 2019 memoir where she first publicly revealed her claims and to disparage Trump for political reasons.
