Jan. 16 (UPI) — Former President Donald Trump is in court Tuesday at the opening of his federal civil trial that will determine the amount of damages he will pay after a judge found he defamed author E. Jean Carroll.
Jury selection began Tuesday morning in Manhattan. Nine jurors will be selected and there will be no alternates. Potential jurors are first asked if they believe they can deliver a fair decision.
Trump appeared at the hearing Tuesday after traveling from Des Moines, Iowa, to New York City, following his victory in the first ballot of 2024
Trump is expected to testify despite a motion filed by Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan, expressing concerns that the former president would try to “sow chaos” during the trial, and calling for strict rules aimed at controlling Trump’s behavior.
“If Mr. Trump appears at this trial, whether as a witness or otherwise, his recent statements and behavior strongly suggest that he will seek to sow chaos,” she wrote in the filing. “Indeed, he may well perceive a benefit in seeking to poison these proceedings.”
In light of the filing, U.S. Judge Lewis Kaplan said he would consider delaying Trump’s testimony until the end of the trial, which would put the former president on the stand around Jan. 22.
In another ruling, Kaplan denied Trump’s petition to delay the trial by a week to allow him to attend the funeral of Amalija Knavs, the mother of former first lady Melania Trump, who died a week ago on Jan. 9.
However, Kaplan pointed out that Trump was allowed to attend the funeral without facing any further penalties from the court.
“The Court offers its condolences to Mr. and Mrs. Trump and the rest of Ms. Knavs’ family,” Kaplan wrote. “Mr. Trump is free to attend the trial, the funeral, or all or parts of both, as he wishes.”
On Tuesday, Trump’s attorney Alina Habba pressed the issue, asking that only Thursday’s trial date be adjourned. Kaplan reiterated that the issue had been ruled on.
Previously, Kaplan restricted the scope of arguments that Trump and his legal team can present during the trial.
The federal civil case is being heard in the U.S. Southern District of New York, where Carroll is seeking an additional $10 million from Trump after a jury found Trump sexually abused the magazine columnist in a Manhattan department store dressing room three decades ago.
As part of the civil verdict in May, Carroll was awarded $5 million, while Trump was also found liable for defaming Carroll in a 2022 Truth Social post, in which Trump labeled the allegations “a Hoax” before declaring “This woman is not my type!”
Following the sensational trial, Carroll’s legal team filed an amended complaint under her original defamation suit after Trump appeared on a CNN town hall on May 10 — one day after the verdict — claiming not to know Carroll and calling her a “whack job.”
At the time, Judge Kaplan ruled to allow Carroll to revise the original lawsuit to include Trump’s latest public comments about her.
Carroll’s amended complaint noted that “Trump used a national platform to demean and mock Carroll. He egged on a laughing audience as he made light of his violent sexual assault, called Carroll names, implied that Carroll was asking to be assaulted, and dismissed the jury’s verdict vindicating Carroll.”
After reviewing Carroll’s complaint, Kaplan issued a summary judgment against Trump in September that found the former president acted with actual malice when he made the remarks about Carroll at the town hall.
In December, a federal appeals court denied Trump’s request to delay the civil trial for 90 days on immunity grounds, noting the former president did not claim presidential immunity until January 2023, despite Carroll suing Trump for defamation four years earlier, in 2019.
Cameras are not allowed in federal court, and it wasn’t yet known if Trump would give a statement during a break in the proceedings as he has done in a separate civil fraud trial playing out in New York state court.
Later Tuesday, Trump will fly to New Hampshire for a campaign appearance ahead of the state’s Jan. 23 primary.
Trump also faces federal criminal trial this spring after being indicted for his failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election; as well as a similar case in Georgia after he was indicted with 19 co-defendants in connection with a conspiracy to subvert the state results.
Additionally, Trump was hit with a federal indictment in Florida last summer on 37 counts for his alleged mishandling of classified documents that were found at his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office.
Trump is also scheduled to go on trial to face 34 felony charges related to a hush-money scheme involving former adult film star Stormy Daniels.
