Trump news – live: E Jean Carroll trial attorney says rape matches Trump’s ‘MO’ of targeting women

Donald Trump’s alleged raped of E Jean Carroll matches his “MO” of targeting women at random, the former Elle magazine columnist’s attorney told jurors on Tuesday.

Opening arguments in the civil rape trial began in a courtroom in New York on Tuesday.

Ms Carroll has claimed that the former president raped her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s.

She first spoke out about the allegations in 2019, when Mr Trump was president.

He denied the incident took place and infamously retorted, “She’s not my type”.

Now, Ms Carroll is getting her day in court after filing a new lawsuit in November, suing him for both the alleged sexual assault and for then defaming her by denying it took place.

The trial comes after New York passed its Adult Survivors Act, giving sexual abuse victims a one-year window to sue attackers for historic assaults.

Key Points

• What are the allegations in E Jean Carroll’s rape case against Donald Trump?

• Jurors in Trump rape and defamation case quizzed over whether they watched The Apprentice

• Trump legal team fails to stop jury from hearing separate sexual assault allegation

• Who is E Jean Carroll? The advice columnist, author and TV talkshow host taking on Donald Trump

• Judge Kaplan rejected Trump’s last-minute delay bid

‘I’m here because Donald Trump raped me'

16:36 , Gustaf Kilander

E Jean Carroll took the stand on Wednesday, saying “I’m here because Donald Trump raped me”.

“When I wrote about it, he said it didn’t happen. He lied and shattered my reputation and I’m here to try and get my life back,” she added.

Trump campaign hits out at DeSantis in new TV ad

16:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Trial opens in E. Jean Carroll’s rape lawsuit against Trump

16:00 , AP

A nearly 30-year-old rape claim against Donald Trump went to trial Tuesday as jurors in the federal civil case heard a former advice columnist’s allegation of being attacked in a luxury department store dressing room. The former president says nothing happened between them.

E. Jean Carroll will testify that what unfolded in a few minutes in a fitting room in 1996 “would change her life forever,” one of her lawyers, Shawn Crowley, said in an opening statement.

“Filled with fear and shame, she kept silent for decades. Eventually, though, silence became impossible,” Crowley said. And when Carroll broke that silence in a 2019 memoir, the then-president “used the most powerful platform on Earth to lie about what he had done, attack Ms. Carroll’s integrity and insult her appearance.”

Trump — who wasn’t in court but hasn’t ruled out testifying —- has called Carroll a “nut job” who fabricated the rape claim to sell her book. Defense attorney Joe Tacopina told jurors Tuesday that her story was wildly implausible and short of evidence.

He accused her of pursuing the case for money, status and political reasons, urging the jurors from heavily Democratic New York to put aside any animus they themselves might hold toward the Republican ex-president and ex-New Yorker.

“You can hate Donald Trump. That’s OK. But there’s a time and a secret place for that. It’s called a ballot box in an election. It’s not here in a court of law,” Tacopina told the six-man, three-woman panel. “Nobody’s above the law, but no one is beneath it.”

VIDEO: Biden promises to 'finish the job' with potential Trump rematch

15:30 , The Independent

Carroll’s lawyer argues Trump posts violate court orders as judge presses Trump team on DNA

15:25 , Gustaf Kilander

Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts on Wednesday morning quickly made it into the court proceedings.

“The E. Jean Carroll case, Ms. Bergdorf Goodman, is a made up SCAM,” the former president wrote on Wednesday. “Her lawyer is a political operative, financed by a big political donor that they said didn’t exist, only to get caught lying about that.”

“Just look at her CNN interview before & after the commercial break - Like a different person. She said there was a dress, using the ol’ Monica Lewinsky ‘stuff’, then she didn’t want to produce it,” he wrote. “The dress should be allowed to be part of the case. This is a fraudulent & false story--Witch Hunt!”

In a subsequent post, Mr Trump went on to claim that “they got caught lying! The Miss Bergdorf Goodman case is financed by a big political donor that they tried to hide”.

“Does anybody believe that I would take a then almost 60 year old woman that I didn’t know, from the front door of a very crowded department store, (with me being very well known, to put it mildly!), into a tiny dressing room, and …. her,” he wrote. “She didn’t scream? There are no witnesses? Nobody saw this? She never made a police complaint? If I was seen there with a woman-BIG PRESS. SCAM!”

According to Adam Klasfeld of Law & Crime, “Carroll’s lawyer argues Trump’s Truth Social posts violate two court orders, not to discuss the lawyers or the DNA issue”.

Judge Lewis Kaplan said that Mr Trump “for three years refused to give a DNA sample, and now he wants it in the case?”

The judge said the comments were “entirely inappropriate”.

Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina responded that he would “try to address that with my client” and that he would ask Mr Trump to “refrain from any further posts regarding this case”.

The judge responded, “Well, I hope you’re more successful,” and added that Mr Trump “may or may not be tampering with a new source of potential liability. And I think you know what I mean”.

Trump says E Jean Carroll rape case is a ‘scam’ because ‘she didn’t scream’

15:02 , Gustaf Kilander

Donald Trump took to Truth Social to claim that the case being handled in the civil rape trial against him following legal action from former advice columnist E Jean Carroll is “a scam”.

“The E. Jean Carroll case, Ms. Bergdorf Goodman, is a made up SCAM,” the former president wrote on Wednesday. “Her lawyer is a political operative, financed by a big political donor that they said didn’t exist, only to get caught lying about that.”

“Just look at her CNN interview before & after the commercial break - Like a different person. She said there was a dress, using the ol’ Monica Lewinsky ‘stuff’, then she didn’t want to produce it,” he wrote. “The dress should be allowed to be part of the case. This is a fraudulent & false story--Witch Hunt!”

In a subsequent post, Mr Trump went on to claim that “they got caught lying! The Miss Bergdorf Goodman case is financed by a big political donor that they tried to hide”.

“Does anybody believe that I would take a then almost 60 year old woman that I didn’t know, from the front door of a very crowded department store, (with me being very well known, to put it mildly!), into a tiny dressing room, and …. her,” he wrote. “She didn’t scream? There are no witnesses? Nobody saw this? She never made a police complaint? If I was seen there with a woman-BIG PRESS. SCAM!”

Read more:

Trump says E Jean Carroll rape case is a ‘scam’ because ‘she didn’t scream’

PHOTOS: E Jean Carroll arrives at court ahead of expected testimony

15:01 , Gustaf Kilander

Trump might use trial docs to scorch witnesses, DA says

15:00 , AP

New York prosecutors have asked a judge to bar Donald Trump from using evidence from his criminal case to attack witnesses, citing what they say is the former president’s history of making “harassing, embarrassing, and threatening statements” about people he’s tangled with in legal disputes.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office filed court papers Monday asking Judge Juan Manuel Merchan for a protective order that would put strict guardrails around Trump’s access to and use of evidence turned over by prosecutors prior to trial. That kind of evidence sharing, called discovery, is routine in criminal cases, and is intended to help ensure a fair trial.

Prosecutors want to block Trump from posting evidence to social media or providing it to third parties. They also want to restrict how he views certain sensitive material, asking that he do so only in the presence of his lawyers — and that he not be able to copy, photograph or transcribe those records.

Trump “has a longstanding and perhaps singular history of attacking witnesses, investigators, prosecutors, trial jurors, grand jurors, judges, and others involved in legal proceedings against him,” Assistant District Attorney Catherine McCaw wrote.

That behavior, she said, has put “those individuals and their families at considerable safety risk.”

Merchan did not immediately rule on the prosecution’s request. McCaw, in her filing, asked him to schedule a hearing on the matter next week.

Email messages seeking comment were left with Trump’s lawyers.

Prosecutors first raised concerns about Trump potentially weaponizing the discovery process at his April 4 arraignment on charges that he falsified records at his company as part of a broader 2016 scheme to make secret hush-money payments to bury allegations of extramarital sexual encounters. Trump has denied wrongdoing — or having extramarital affairs — and pleaded not guilty.

With Trump sitting at the defense table just feet away from her, McCaw told Merchan that a protective order was needed to “ensure the sanctity of the proceedings as well as the sanctity of the discovery materials.”

At the time, McCaw said prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers were close to a joint agreement with many of the restrictions prosecutors are now asking Merchan to impose. Negotiations later broke down, leading prosecutors to seek the judge’s intervention.

Department store employee to testify ahead of Carroll

14:44 , Gustaf Kilander

Trump claims Carroll is ‘using the ol’ Monica Lewinsky 'stuff’’

14:41 , Gustaf Kilander

Mr Trump took to Truth Social on Wednesday morning, writing that “The E. Jean Carroll case, Ms. Bergdorf Goodman, is a made up SCAM”.

Donald Trump

Will Trump testify in the E Jean Carroll civil rape trial? He faces ‘huge’ legal risk either way, experts say

14:30 , Bevan Hurley

A jury in New York on Tuesday will begin hearing allegations that E Jean Carroll was raped by Donald Trump in the changing rooms of a Manhattan department store nearly three decades ago.

The former president has been accused of sexual assault by more than two dozen women, but this is the first time a jury will be asked to determine the claims in court.

Legal experts told The Independent that Mr Trump’s likely non-appearance in the civil battery and defamation trial in the US District Courthouse in lower Manhattan was a major gamble.

“The risk for Trump if he doesn’t testify is huge,” Jennifer Keller, who represented Kevin Spacey when he was found not liable of sexual battery by a jury in 2022, told The Independent.

“The jury will hear only one side of the story — the plaintiff’s. And the jurors may well conclude he’s afraid of showing up because he knows the allegations are true.”

Read more:

Donald Trump’s ‘huge’ legal risk in E Jean Carroll civil rape trial

Carroll expected to testify

14:20 , AP

The trial stands to test Trump’s “Teflon Don” reputation for shaking off serious legal problems and to reprise accounts of the type of sexual misconduct that rocked his 2016 presidential campaign as he seeks office again. Trump denies all the claims, saying they are falsehoods spun up to damage him.

The trial comes a month after he pleaded not guilty in an unrelated criminal case surrounding payments made to bury accounts of alleged extramarital sex.

Carroll’s suit is a civil case, meaning that no matter the outcome, Trump isn’t in danger of going to jail. She is seeking unspecified monetary damages and a retraction of Trump statements that she alleges were defamatory.

Among his comments: “She’s not my type,” which her lawyers say was tantamount to calling her too unattractive to assault.

Jurors — whose names are being kept secret to prevent potential harassment — range in age from 26 to 66 and include a janitor, a physical therapist and people who work in security, health care collections, a library, a high school and other settings.

They were questioned about their news-watching habits (which vary from watching “everything” to ignoring it all), political donations and support for any of a roster of right- and left-wing groups. They were asked, too, whether they used Trump’s social media platform, read Carroll’s former Elle magazine column and even if they’d seen Trump’s former reality show “The Apprentice” — and whether any of these and other matters would make it difficult for them to be fair.

Carroll, 79, is expected to testify as soon as Wednesday that a chance encounter with Trump, 76, turned violent, and that he defamed her when responding to the rape allegations.

She says that after she ran into the future president at Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman on an unspecified spring Thursday evening in 1996, he invited her to shop with him for a woman’s lingerie gift before they teased one another to try on a bodysuit. Carroll says they ended up alone together in a store dressing room, where Trump pushed her against a wall and raped before she fought him off and fled.

Her suit argues that she was psychologically scarred by the alleged attack, and then subjected to an onslaught of hateful messages and reputational damage when Trump painted her as a liar.

“This case is Ms. Carroll’s chance to clear her name, to pursue justice,” Crowley said.

Tacopina countered that it was “an affront to justice.”

He suggested her account of being violently raped in the Fifth Avenue store, with no one around, was preposterous. Also, Tacopina noted, there was no record that Carroll had any injuries, sought out a doctor or therapist, asked the store about surveillance video or even wrote about the alleged attack in her diary.

“It all comes down to: Do you believe the unbelievable?” he asked in his opening statement.

Jurors are also expected to hear from two other women who say they were sexually assaulted by Trump. The jury will also see the infamous 2005 “Access Hollywood” video in which Trump is heard asserting that celebrities can grab women sexually without asking.

Carroll’s allegations normally would be too old to bring to court. But in November, New York state enacted a law allowing for suits over decades-old sexual abuse claims.

A timeline of Trump’s marriages and sexual assault allegations amid the E Jean Carroll trial

14:00 , Chelsea Ritschel

Prior to his marriage to Melania Trump, Donald Trump was married two other times.

He married his first wife, Ivana, in 1977. He would then go on to marry his second wife, Marla Maples, in 1993, after the pair were rumoured to have engaged in an affair during his first marriage.

In 1998, Donald met his current wife, Melania, and tied the knot in 2005. Throughout his three marriages, the 76-year-old is said to have engaged in a number of rumoured affairs and faced numerous sexual misconduct accusations.

Earlier this month, Melania Trump was notably absent when her husband surrendered to authorities in Manhattan after being indicted on 34 felony counts.

The absence of the former first lady sparked speculation about the state of the couple’s marriage, with some questioning whether Melania chose not to accompany her husband to New York City due to the nature of the charges. The one-time president is facing charges for falsification of business records in connection to hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Read more:

A timeline of Trump’s marriages and sexual assault allegations

WATCH: E Jean Carroll civil rape trial against Trump under way

13:45 , Rachel Sharp

Kamala Harris paints 2024 as battle against ‘MAGA extremists’

13:30 , Shweta Sharma

Vice president Kamala Harris on Tuesday offered her own take on what is at stake for Americans as they return to the polls in 2024.

She tweeted Tuesday afternoon: “MAGA extremists want to take away women’s health care decisions, control what books your kids can read in schools, and tell you who you can love. That’s not who we are.”

“As @JoeBiden says, we are in a battle for the soul of this nation. That’s why we’re running for reelection,” said the vice president.

What are the accusations in E Jean Carroll v Trump case?

13:15 , Rachel Sharp

In 2019, E Jean Carroll publicly alleged that Donald Trump had raped her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s in her book What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal.

The longtime Elle advice columnist and TV talkshow host said the pair had a chance meeting at the 5th Avenue department store, and he asked for help picking out a gift for a woman.

She said he took her to the lingerie section of the store and asked her to try on an item in the dressing room, where he allegedly pinned her up against a wall and sexually assaulted her for three minutes.

E Jean Carroll lawyers included this photo of the dress she was wearing on the day of the alleged rape in the lawsuit against Donald Trump

He denied the allegations at a White House press conference, saying he had “never met her” and that “she’s not my type”.

Following his denial, she filed a civil lawsuit for defamation in 2019.

Ms Carroll then filed a separate civil lawsuit against Mr Trump in November 2022 under a New York law that allows sexual assault survivors to bring cases after the statute of limitations has expired on alleged offences.

The new case accuses him of battery – and also adds a new defamation claim based on recent posts in which he called her a “con job”.

Who is E Jean Carroll? The advice columnist, author and TV talkshow host taking on Donald Trump

13:00 , Bevan Hurley

E Jean Carroll has been a trailblazing figure in New York’s journalism, entertainment and literary scenes for decades.

Born in Detroit and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the one-time Miss Indiana University beauty queen began pitching her ideas to magazines at the age of 12.

After graduating from college, she got her breakthrough by landing her first published article in Esquire, a “witty literary quiz she concocted” about Ernest Hemingway and F Scott Fitzgerald.

From there, writing assignments at Rolling Stone and Playboy began to “trickle in”, she told Indianapolis Monthly in 1996.

While living in Montana with her first husband Steve Byers and their dog, she came to New York City in 1983 to interview Fran Leibowitz for a cover article in Outside magazine.

Read more:

E Jean Carroll: The author and TV talkshow host who took on Donald Trump

Meanwhile... Proud Boys trial draws to close

12:45 , Rachel Sharp

Five members of the Proud Boys are expected to learn their fate soon in their seditious conspiracy trial over their actions leading up to and on the day of the January 6 Capitol riot.

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and his fellow defendants Ethan Nordean, Dominic Pezzola, Zachary Rehl, and Joseph Biggs have been on trial for almost two months for allegedly organising a group to lead the storming of the US Capitol Building to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory over Donald Trump.

Closing arguments took place on Tuesday with Mr Tarrio’s attorney laying the blame for what happened on Mr Trump’s shoulders.

On Wednesday, prosecutors will present their rebuttal case before the jury begins deliberations.

Former federal prosecutor says Trump is using ‘gamesmanship'

12:30 , Rachel Sharp

Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, said Donald Trump not attending the case will only hurt his chances of winning.

“Trump’s attorneys are leaving open the possibility that he will testify at the trial because they don’t want to tip their hand.

“What they’re trying to do is make the plaintiff’s lawyers have to prepare for two possibilities, the first being that Trump testifies live in court and they have to cross examine him. The second is that he won’t testify at all, and they’ll have to show the deposition,” she said.

She said Mr Trump’s team basically wants Carroll’s team to have to do the work to prepare even if he doesn’t show up.

“It’s total gamesmanship, as in ‘why make their job easier’?” she said.

“Trump not attending can only hurt his case. Jurors see trials on television and expect the parties to be present. Jurors may think that Trump doesn’t take the allegations seriously and be more inclined to rule against him for not being present. Deposition testimony is also less effective than live testimony if Trump refuses to testify at trial.”

Trump is taking risk by not testifying, says expert

12:15 , Rachel Sharp

Legal experts told The Independent that Donald Trump’s likely non-appearance in the civil battery and defamation trial in the US District Courthouse in lower Manhattan is a major gamble.

“The risk for Trump if he doesn’t testify is huge,” Jennifer Keller, who represented Kevin Spacey when he was found not liable of sexual battery by a jury in 2022, told The Independent.

“The jury will hear only one side of the story — the plaintiff’s. And the jurors may well conclude he’s afraid of showing up because he knows the allegations are true.”

VIDEO: 6 Men, 3 Women Chosen as Jurors in Rape Suit Against Trump

12:00 , The Independent

Most Americans don’t want Trump or Biden to run again, poll finds

11:30 , Shweta Sharma

With the 2024 presidential election shaping up to be a repeat of the 2020 matchup between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, Americans are less than enthused about the prospect of a rematch.

A recent Hart Research poll commissioned by NBC News found significant majorities of Americans would prefer that Mr Trump and Mr Biden both stand down rather than compete for a second term at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

A full 70 per cent of Americans — including a bare 51 per cent majority of self-identified Democrats surveyed — said Mr Biden shouldn’t run for another term, while 60 per cent of respondents, including 33 per cent of Republicans contacted, said Mr Trump should step aside as well.

For the respondents who want Mr Biden to retire rather than seek a second term, 48 per cent said the 46th president’s age is a “major” factor in why they’d prefer he step aside in favour of someone else.

Andrew Feinberg writes.

Trump reacts to Biden 2024 announcement by reading his own statement from hours earlier

11:00 , Ariana Baio

Donald Trump aggressively attacked President Joe Biden and called him “the most corrupt president in American history” and making false claims in a statement and video after Mr Biden announced his 2024 re-election bid

Mr Biden officially launched his re-election campaign for president on Tuesday 25 April, where he called on Americans to help him “finish the job.”

Just ahead of his announcement on Monday evening, Mr Trump released a lengthy press release making multiple false claims about himself and Mr Biden.

Hours later on Tuesday, Mr Trump appeared in a video where he read his statement word-for-word.

Mr Trump accused Mr Biden of leading the US “to the very brink of World War III” as well as allowing “millions of illegal aliens” who Mr Trump claimed are “coming in from mental institutions and prisons” to attribute a lack of security to the president.

Read more:

Trump reacts to Biden 2024 announcement by reading his statement from hours earlier

ICYM: What to know about the E Jean Carroll rape case

10:30 , Shweta Sharma

Decades after she was allegedly raped by a New York real estate mogul who would go on to be the 45th President of the United States, E Jean Carroll is getting her day in court.

Ms Carroll, a writer and former advice columnist for Elle magazine, is the plaintiff in a pair of civil lawsuits against former president Donald Trump.

One of those lawsuits will now be presented in a New York City federal courtroom starting Tuesday 25 April, when a jury will be chosen under the supervision of US District Judge Lewis Kaplan.

Those jurors, who will remain anonymous on Judge Kaplan’s orders due to the risk of threats, intimidation or outright violence against anyone seen as an enemy by Mr Trump and his supporters, will hear evidence of allegations made by Ms Carroll against the twice-impeached and indicted ex-president.

Read Andrew Feinberg’s detailed report.

Trump on trial: What to know about the E Jean Carroll rape case

Trump suggests boycott of 2024 GOP debates as Democrats skip them altogether

10:00 , Abe Asher

Former President Donald Trump has suggested that he is planning on skipping the Republican primary debates due to his polling advantage and alleged biases against him.

“I see that everybody is talking about the Republican Debates, but nobody got my approval, or the approval of the Trump Campaign, before announcing them,” Mr Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social. “When you’re leading by seemingly insurmountable numbers, and you have hostile Networks with angry, TRUMP & MAGA hating anchors asking the “questions,” why subject yourself to being libeled and abused?”

Mr Trump voiced a particular concern with the second primary debate, scheduled to be held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

“Also, the Second Debate is being held at the Reagan Library, the Chairman of which is, amazingly, Fred Ryan, Publisher of The Washington Post. NO!”

Read more:

Trump suggests boycott of 2024 GOP debates as Democrats skip them altogether

Ex-Proud Boys leader blames Trump for January 6 attack

09:30 , Shweta Sharma

The former leader of the far-right Proud Boys group has directly blamed Donald Trump for the violent January 6 attacks on the US Capitol.

Henry “Enrique” Tarrio is on trial for allegedly organising a small group of Proud Boys to lead the storming of the US Capitol Building to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory over Mr Trump.

His lawyer, Nayib Hassan, during his closing argument on Tuesday, cited Mr Trump’s “fight like hell” cry at a rally in the hours before his supporters attacked the building with lawmakers inside.

“It was Donald Trump’s words, it was his motivation, it was his anger that caused what occurred on January 6 in your amazing and beautiful city,” Mr Hassan said.

“They want to use Enrique Tarrio as a scapegoat for Donald Trump and those in power.”

Jurors in Trump rape and defamation case quizzed over whether they watched The Apprentice

09:00 , Bevan Hurley

Jurors in the Donald Trump civil sexual assault trial were asked about their political affiliations, news consumption, whether they watched The Apprentice and if they belonged to the Proud Boys or Antifa during jury selection at the US District Court in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday.

A panel of 48 prospective jurors were brought into the courtroom under strict secrecy as the civil battery and defamation trial began, relating to the alleged rape of author E Jean Carroll by Mr Trump in the mid-1990s.

Jurors were told they would remain anonymous throughout the trial to protect them from harassment and the invasion of privacy by Judge Lewis Kaplan.

He instructed them not to tell their families which trial they were hearing, or even divulge their real names to one another.

“If you’re normally a Bill, maybe go by John,” he said.

Read more:

Jurors in Trump case quizzed over whether they watched The Apprentice

Donald Trump ‘raped’ columnist E Jean Carroll in 1996 and then ‘destroyed’ her career, jury hears

08:30 , Shweta Sharma

Donald Trump allegedly raped advice columnist E Jean Carroll during a chance encounter at an upmarket New York department store and then “destroyed” her career when he repeatedly lied about the claims, a civil jury in New York heard on Tuesday.

Ms Carroll, 79, is suing Mr Trump, 76, for battery and defamation in a civil trial in a US Federal Court in Lower Manhattan, the latest in a swirl of litigation surrounding the former president as he prepares to run for the White House in 2024.

Ms Carroll had been leaving Bergdorf Goodman on 5th Avenue sometime in the spring of 1996 when she met Mr Trump at a revolving door entrance, Ms Carroll’s attorney Shawn Crowley told the jury in opening arguments.

Donald Trump ‘raped’ writer and then ‘destroyed’ her career, court hears

Who is Natasha Stoynoff? The magazine journalist whose testimony could bring down Trump in the E Jean Carroll civil rape trial

08:00 , Gustaf Kilander

People magazine sent correspondent Natasha Stoynoff to Mar-a-Lago in late 2005 to write a wedding anniversary story about Donald Trump, who had then recently married Melania Knauss.

Almost two decades later, her experience of the future president allegedly “forcing his tongue” down her throat could prove essential testimony in the E Jean Carroll civil rape trial that began on Tuesday in a federal court in New York City.

Before joining the magazine, Ms Stoynoff was a reporter and photographer at The Toronto Star, a columnist at The Toronto Sun, and a freelancer for Time Magazine. She then worked for People magazine for almost 20 years. She now lives in New York, where she writes books and screenplays, according to her bio on Goodreads.

The Trump legal team failed to stop the inclusion of Ms Stoynoff’s testimony in the trial.

Ms Carroll claims that Mr Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in 1995 or 1996 and that he later defamed her in 2019 as president when he rejected her allegation.

Read more:

Who is Natasha Stoynoff? The journalist whose testimony could bring down Trump

Trump legal team fails to stop jury from hearing separate sexual assault allegation

07:30 , Shweta Sharma

The Trump legal team has failed to stop the inclusion of a separate sexual assault allegation in the civil rape trial between Donald Trump and writer E Jean Carroll.

Ms Carroll claims that Mr Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in 1995 or 1996 and that he later defamed her in 2019 as president when he rejected her allegation.

The judge in charge of the trial that began on Tuesday 25 April ruled that Mr Trump’s attorneys had acted too late. Jurors are now set to hear about another incident which may give the appearance that the former president has a history of sexual assault.

Trump legal team fails to stop jury from hearing separate sexual assault allegation

VIDEO: Jurors for Donald Trump's civil rape trial will remain anonymous

07:00 , Gustaf Kilander

‘You can hate Donald Trump,’ his attorney says in opening statements

06:30 , Shweta Sharma

Joe Tacopina, who is part of the legal team representing Donald Trump in E Jean Carroll rape case, told jurors that you may hate the former president from their opinions about him outside the court but there is a time and place for that.

“People have very strong feelings about Donald Trump, one way or the other,” Mr Tacopina said. “”It’s OK to feel however you feel. You can hate Donald Trump. That’s OK.”

“But there’s a secret time and a place for that. It’s called the ballot box during an election, not here in the court of law.”

His comments came following opening statements by Ms Carroll’s defence team.

Jury selected at 1.30pm

06:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Both sets of attorneys had three strikes from the remaining 35 jurors.

Judge Kaplan reminded jurors not to do their own research or go “roaming through the halls of Bergdorf Goodman”.

He also explicitly barred anyone involved in the case from making statements likely to incite violence or civil unrest.

Just before 1.30pm, Judge Kaplan announced the nine-member jury panel had been selected and excused the remaining jurors.

Manhattan DA seeks to bar Trump from discussing evidence

05:30 , Shweta Sharma

The Manhattan district attorney’s office has asked a judge to bar Donald Trump from discussing publicly the evidence prosecutors turn over to his lawyers in the business fraud case.

“The risk that this defendant will use the covered materials inappropriately is substantial,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Catherine McCaw wrote.

“Defendant has a long history of discussing his legal matters publicly — including by targeting witnesses, jurors, investigators, prosecutors, and judges with harassing, embarrassing, and threatening statements on social media and in other public forums — and he has already done so in this case.”

She said the behaviour has put “those individuals and their families at considerable safety risk.”

Jury asked if they watched The Apprentice

05:00 , Bevan Hurley

The jury was then asked if they followed Mr Trump on social media, had Truth Social or Rumble accounts, or watched Mr Trump’s reality TV show The Apprentice.

They were also quizzed whether they had read Ms Carroll’s Elle magazine advice column Ask E Jean, had signed up for her Substack or followed her on social media.

One juror said he believed Mr Trump had been unfairly treated by the press, but said it would not influence their ability to remain impartial.

The original 48 in the courtroom had been whittled down to 35 by this stage.

Then followed a series of biographical questions for remaining jurors on their occupation, where they lived, their family life and “from which print, broadcast or other media do you get your news.”

Jurors’ answers ranged from Fox News and the Tim Poole podcast to the Provincetown Independent, CBS Evening News and “randomly, Google, anything on the internet”.

Some said they got their information from social media such as Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. Several others said they didn’t watch the news at all.

Jury asked about political allegiances

04:00 , Bevan Hurley

Judge Kaplan informed the prospective jury members of the basic details of the case. He then asked each a detailed list of questions to weed out possible biases.

These included questions about whether they or any members of their family or social circle knew either Mr Trump or Ms Carroll, if they had any professional dealings with the attorneys, or had read, seen or heard anything about the case that might impact their ability to come to an impartial decision.

All jurors indicated they were registered to vote. “How bout that folks, that’s terrific,” Judge Kaplan said.

They were also asked whether they had voted in the 2016 and 2020 elections, donated to Mr Trump, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, or worked or volunteered in a political campaign.

A handful of jurors who indicated they had political allegiances were excused from the trial.

The jurors were then asked whether they belonged to a range of groups including QAnon, Antifa, Redneck Revolt, The John Brown Gun Club, the Communist Party of USA, the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters, Boogaloo Bois, the Ku Klux Klan or Trump Supporters NYC.

One juror was excused after indicating they would be unable to be impartial due to the MeToo anti-harassment movement.

Carroll attends first day in court

03:00 , Bevan Hurley

E Jean Carroll listened intently as she sat in the front row dressed in a dark brown dress and white shirt, occasionally turning to smile at the public gallery. She was flanked by a team of four attorneys, including lead counsel Roberta Kaplan, who is no relation to the judge despite sharing the same surname.

Mr Trump’s all-male team of six attorneys and assistants sat in two rows behind them.

Judge Kaplan informed the prospective jury members of the basic details of the case. He then asked each a detailed list of questions to weed out possible biases.

Ex-Proud Boys leader blames Trump for January 6 attack

02:00 , Graeme Massie

The former leader of the far-right Proud Boys group has directly blamed Donald Trump for the violent January 6 attacks on the US Capitol.

Henry “Enrique” Tarrio is on trial for allegedly organising a small group of Proud Boys to lead the storming of the US Capitol Building to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory over Mr Trump.

His lawyer, Nayib Hassan, during his closing argument on Tuesday, cited Mr Trump’s “fight like hell” cry at a rally in the hours before his supporters attacked the building with lawmakers inside.

“It was Donald Trump’s words, it was his motivation, it was his anger that caused what occurred on January 6 in your amazing and beautiful city,” Mr Hassan said.

“They want to use Enrique Tarrio as a scapegoat for Donald Trump and those in power.”

Read more:

Ex-Proud Boys leader blames Trump for January 6 attack

What the jury heard in the E Jean Carroll rape trial against Donald Trump

01:34 , Josh Marcus

Donald Trump allegedly raped advice columnist E Jean Carroll during a chance encounter at an upmarket New York department store and then “destroyed” her career when he repeatedly lied about the claims, a civil jury in New York heard on Tuesday.

Ms Carroll, 79, is suing Mr Trump, 76, for battery and defamation in a civil trial in a US Federal Court in Lower Manhattan, the latest in a swirl of litigation surrounding the former president as he prepares to run for the White House in 2024.

Ms Carroll had been leaving Bergdorf Goodman on 5th Avenue some time in the spring of 1996 when she met Mr Trump at a revolving door entrance, Ms Carroll’s attorney Shawn Crowley told the jury in opening arguments.

She recognised Mr Trump as “that real estate guy”, and he knew her as “that advice columnist”, Ms Crowley said.

Bevan Hurley has the full story.

Donald Trump ‘raped’ writer and then ‘destroyed’ her career, court hears

Florida Republicans propose amendment to allow DeSantis to run for president without resigning

01:15 , Eric Garcia

Florida Republicans proposed an amendment to the states’ “Resign to Run” law that would allow for Governor Ron DeSantis to run for president without giving up his office.

Mr DeSantis is largely expected to run for president after the state legislature’s current session wraps up. But many have wondered whether Mr DeSantis would need to give up his office to seek the presidency.

The new proposed amendment says that “persons seeking the office of President or Vice President of the United States” will not have to resign to run. Politico reporter Gary Fine recently noted that Mr DeSantis would not have to resign to seek the presidency; Florida state senator Danny Burgess said the senate wanted to clarify the law in casee Mr DeSantis does run.

Mr DeSantis has made little secret about his intention to seek the White House. Earlier this week, he ventured to Japan as part of a four-country trip that included the United Kingdom, Israel and South Korea.

Read more:

Florida Republicans try to let DeSantis run for president without resigning

Who is Natasha Stoynoff? The magazine journalist whose testimony could bring down Trump in the E Jean Carroll civil rape trial

Wednesday 26 April 2023 00:30 , Gustaf Kilander

People magazine sent correspondent Natasha Stoynoff to Mar-a-Lago in late 2005 to write a wedding anniversary story about Donald Trump, who had then recently married Melania Knauss.

Almost two decades later, her experience of the future president allegedly “forcing his tongue” down her throat could prove essential testimony in the E Jean Carroll civil rape trial that began on Tuesday in a federal court in New York City.

Before joining the magazine, Ms Stoynoff was a reporter and photographer at The Toronto Star, a columnist at The Toronto Sun, and a freelancer for Time Magazine. She then worked for People magazine for almost 20 years. She now lives in New York, where she writes books and screenplays, according to her bio on Goodreads.

The Trump legal team failed to stop the inclusion of Ms Stoynoff’s testimony in the trial.

Ms Carroll claims that Mr Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in 1995 or 1996 and that he later defamed her in 2019 as president when he rejected her allegation.

Read more:

Who is Natasha Stoynoff? The journalist whose testimony could bring down Trump

Trump reacts to Biden 2024 announcement with misinformation-filled rant

Tuesday 25 April 2023 23:45 , Holly Patrick

Donald Trump has released a misinformation-filled video on his Truth Social platform in response to Joe Biden’s announcement that he will seek re-election in 2024.

The former president read out a statement he had released earlier on Tuesday (25 April) word for word, in which he made fear-mongering false claims such as “Our currency is crashing and the dollar will soon no longer be the world standard, which will be our greatest defeat in over 200 years.”

There is no evidence to suggest that the US dollar is crashing to the point of no longer bring a world standard.

Trump suggests boycott of 2024 GOP debates as Democrats skip them altogether

Tuesday 25 April 2023 23:00 , Abe Asher

Former President Donald Trump has suggested that he is planning on skipping the Republican primary debates due to his polling advantage and alleged biases against him.

“I see that everybody is talking about the Republican Debates, but nobody got my approval, or the approval of the Trump Campaign, before announcing them,” Mr Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social. “When you’re leading by seemingly insurmountable numbers, and you have hostile Networks with angry, TRUMP & MAGA hating anchors asking the “questions,” why subject yourself to being libeled and abused?”

Mr Trump voiced a particular concern with the second primary debate, scheduled to be held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

“Also, the Second Debate is being held at the Reagan Library, the Chairman of which is, amazingly, Fred Ryan, Publisher of The Washington Post. NO!”

Read more:

Trump suggests boycott of 2024 GOP debates as Democrats skip them altogether

What are the allegations in E Jean Carroll’s rape case against Donald Trump?

Tuesday 25 April 2023 22:30 , Bevan Hurley

The encounter, as recalled by E Jean Carroll, was friendly at first.

Ms Carroll, then a magazine feature writer and TV host, bumped into Donald Trump in the upmarket New York department store Bergdorf Goodman.

As Ms Carroll wrote in her 2019 memoir What Do We Need Men For?, he recognised her as “that advice lady”. She knew him as “that real-estate tycoon”.

Mr Trump supposedly told her that he was there to buy a gift for “a girl”, and asked for help to choose an appropriate item.

She placed the incident in either late 1995 or early 1996, when the future president was married to Marla Maples.

Read more:

What are the allegations at the centre of E Jean Carroll’s rape case against Trump?

Jurors in Trump rape and defamation case quizzed over whether they watched The Apprentice

Tuesday 25 April 2023 22:00 , Bevan Hurley

Jurors in the Donald Trump civil sexual assault trial were asked about their political affiliations, news consumption, whether they watched The Apprentice and if they belonged to the Proud Boys or Antifa during jury selection at the US District Court in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday.

A panel of 48 prospective jurors were brought into the courtroom under strict secrecy as the civil battery and defamation trial related to the alleged rape of author E Jean Carroll by Mr Trump in the mid-1990s began on Tuesday.

Jurors were told they would remain anonymous throughout the trial to protect them from harassment and the invasion of privacy by Judge Lewis Kaplan.

He instructed them not to tell their families which trial they were hearing, or even divulge their real names to one another.

“If you’re normally a Bill, maybe go by John,” he said.

Read more:

Jurors in Trump case quizzed over whether they watched The Apprentice

Trump legal team fails to stop jury from hearing separate sexual assault allegation

Tuesday 25 April 2023 21:30 , Gustaf Kilander

The Trump legal team has failed to stop the inclusion of a separate sexual assault allegation in the civil rape trial between Donald Trump and writer E Jean Carroll.

Ms Carroll claims that Mr Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in 1995 or 1996 and that he later defamed her in 2019 as president when he rejected her allegation.

The judge in charge of the trial that began on Tuesday 25 April ruled that Mr Trump’s attorneys had acted too late. Jurors are now set to hear about another incident which may give the appearance that the former president has a history of sexual assault.

Ms Carroll expanded her defamation lawsuit to include battery last year after the state of New York passed a law allowing victims a one-year period to sue their alleged attackers after the expiration of the statute of limitations.

Years after the alleged rape of Ms Carroll, a People magazine journalist was at Mar-a-Lago to interview Mr Trump and Melania Trump, whom he had recently married at the time.

Read more:

Trump legal team fails to stop jury from hearing separate sexual assault allegation

Who is E Jean Carroll? The advice columnist, author and TV talkshow host taking on Donald Trump

Tuesday 25 April 2023 21:00 , Bevan Hurley

E Jean Carroll has been a trailblazing figure in New York’s journalism, entertainment and literary scenes for decades.

Born in Detroit and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the one-time Miss Indiana University beauty queen began pitching her ideas to magazines at the age of 12.

After graduating from college, she got her breakthrough by landing her first published article in Esquire, a “witty literary quiz she concocted” about Ernest Hemingway and F Scott Fitzgerald.

From there, writing assignments at Rolling Stone and Playboy began to “trickle in”, she told Indianapolis Monthly in 1996.

While living in Montana with her first husband Steve Byers and their dog, she came to New York City in 1983 to interview Fran Leibowitz for a cover article in Outside magazine.

Read more:

E Jean Carroll: The author and TV talkshow host who took on Donald Trump

EDITORIAL: In 2024, Trump and Biden will be older, if not necessarily wiser

Tuesday 25 April 2023 20:30 , The Independent

Four more years? Joe Biden’s declaration that he’s running for a second term was widely expected, but, it has to be said, cannot be entirely welcomed.

America’s voters have repeatedly stated their preference that the next contest not be a rerun of the one in 2020, but it appears that they are to be presented once again with a choice between the two most famous senior citizens in the world. At least they are familiar faces, and their strengths and weaknesses very well known – the only differences being that they’re both a little older this time round, though not necessarily wiser.

Read more:

Editorial: In 2024, Trump and Biden will be older, if not necessarily wiser

Trump releases new presidential campaign attack ad against DeSantis

Tuesday 25 April 2023 20:00 , Holly Patrick

Donald Trump has released a new attack ad on Ron DeSantis, claiming that he “saved” the Florida governor’s career.

A dramatic voiceover reads: “Unfortunately instead of being grateful, DeSantis is now attacking the very man who saved his career. Isn’t it time DeSantis remembers how he got to where he is?” as a clip plays of Mr DeSantis teaching his young daughter to “build the wall” with toy blocks in a 2018 Trump campaign video.

According to a Wall Street Journal poll, Mr DeSantis is behind Mr Trump by 13 points (51-38 per cent).

Trump reacts to Biden 2024 announcement by reading his own statement from hours earlier

Tuesday 25 April 2023 19:30 , Ariana Baio

Donald Trump aggressively attacked President Joe Biden and called him “the most corrupt president in American history” and making false claims in a statement and video after Mr Biden announced his 2024 re-election bid

Mr Biden officially launched his re-election campaign for president on Tuesday 25 April, where he called on Americans to help him “finish the job.”

Just ahead of his announcement on Monday evening, Mr Trump released a lengthy press release making multiple false claims about himself and Mr Biden.

Hours later on Tuesday, Mr Trump appeared in a video where he read his statement word-for-word.

Mr Trump accused Mr Biden of leading the US “to the very brink of World War III” as well as allowing “millions of illegal aliens” who Mr Trump claimed are “coming in from mental institutions and prisons” to attribute a lack of security to the president.

Read more:

Trump reacts to Biden 2024 announcement by reading his statement from hours earlier

Will Mr Trump attend the trial?

Tuesday 25 April 2023 19:00 , Andrew Feinberg

In a court filing last week, Mr Trump said he shouldn’t attend the trial as he doesn’t want to “burden” New York City.

In a letter to Manhattan federal court Judge Lewis Kaplan on Wednesday, Mr Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina said that the former president “wishes” to attend the civil trial beginning next week – but is concerned about the “logistical and financial burdens” of his attendance on “the courthouse and New York City”.

Ms Carroll meanwhile plans to attend the trial.

Judge Kaplan rejected Trump’s last-minute delay bid

Tuesday 25 April 2023 18:30 , Andrew Feinberg

After Mr Trump’s lawyers made an 11th-hour attempt to once again postpone his long-delayed civil defamation and rape trial on the grounds that publicity surrounding his recent indictment necessitated a “cooling-off” period to ensure an impartial jury, Judge Kaplan said the one-month delay Mr Trump’s attorneys had asked for would have no impact on the potential jury pool in the case, which will be tried in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

“There is no reason to assume that a sufficient number of fair and impartial jurors cannot be found on April 25, 2023 or that it would be materially easier to find such jurors on May 23, 2023,” he said.

Carroll is also suing Trump for the alleged rape itself

Tuesday 25 April 2023 18:00 , Andrew Feinberg

Last year, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the Adult Survivors Act, which created a one-year suspension of statutes of limitations for rape and other civil claims arising from allegations of sexual misconduct.

The law allows sexual assault survivors to sue their attackers regardless of when the alleged assault may have taken place.

In November 2022, shortly after the bill signing, Ms Carroll filed a second lawsuit against Mr Trump for rape.

The new case accuses him of battery – and also adds a new defamation claim based on recent posts in which he called her a “con job”.

Both lawsuits are seeking monetary damages from the ex-president.

Will Trump testify in the E Jean Carroll civil rape trial? He faces ‘huge’ legal risk either way, experts say

Tuesday 25 April 2023 17:30 , Bevan Hurley

A jury in New York on Tuesday will begin hearing allegations that E Jean Carroll was raped by Donald Trump in the changing rooms of a Manhattan department store nearly three decades ago.

The former president has been accused of sexual assault by more than two dozen women, but this is the first time a jury will be asked to determine the claims in court.

Legal experts told The Independent that Mr Trump’s likely non-appearance in the civil battery and defamation trial in the US District Courthouse in lower Manhattan was a major gamble.

“The risk for Trump if he doesn’t testify is huge,” Jennifer Keller, who represented Kevin Spacey when he was found not liable of sexual battery by a jury in 2022, told The Independent.

“The jury will hear only one side of the story — the plaintiff’s. And the jurors may well conclude he’s afraid of showing up because he knows the allegations are true.”

Read more:

Donald Trump’s ‘huge’ legal risk in E Jean Carroll civil rape trial

Justice Department involvement delayed the defamation suit

Tuesday 25 April 2023 17:00 , Andrew Feinberg

Although a Clinton-era Supreme Court case, Jones v Clinton, allows presidents to be sued for conduct which occurred before the start of their time in the White House, Mr Trump’s legal team asked the Department of Justice to aid in his defence of the 2019 case.

The department filed papers seeking to shield him from liability on the grounds that he was acting in an official capacity as president when he made the allegedly defamatory statements about Ms Carroll. But Judge Kaplan rejected those arguments and said the suit could proceed. An attempt by Mr Trump to appeal that decision failed in September 2021 as well.

His legal team took up another approach in February of last year, when they moved to countersue Ms Carroll.

But Judge Kaplan blocked that bid in a scathing decision on 11 March 2022, in which he slammed Mr Trump’s continuing attempts to delay the case as “futile” and in “bad faith”.

“The defendant’s litigation tactics, whatever their intent, have delayed the case to an extent that readily could have been far less,” Judge Kaplan wrote.

“Granting leave to amend without considering the futility of the proposed amendment needlessly would make a regrettable situation worse by opening new avenues for significant further delay”.

Letting Mr Trump countersue “would make a regrettable situation worse,” the judge added.

Who is E Jean Carroll? The advice columnist, author and TV talkshow host taking on Donald Trump

Tuesday 25 April 2023 16:30 , Bevan Hurley

E Jean Carroll has been a trailblazing figure of New York’s journalism, entertainment and literary scenes for decades.

Born in Detroit and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the one-time Miss Indiana University beauty queen began pitching her ideas to magazines at the age of 12.

After graduating from college, she got her breakthrough by landing her first published article in Esquire, a “witty literary quiz she concocted” about Ernest Hemingway and F Scott Fitzgerald.

From there, writing assignments at Rolling Stone and Playboy began to “trickle in”, she told Indianapolis Monthly in 1996.

While living in Montana with her first husband Steve Byers and their dog, she came to New York City in 1983 to interview Fran Leibowitz for a cover article in Outside magazine.

Read more:

E Jean Carroll: The author and TV talkshow host who took on Donald Trump

What Carroll said about the alleged dressing room rape

Tuesday 25 April 2023 16:00 , Andrew Feinberg

The allegations against Mr Trump were first laid out in an excerpt from her book What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal, that ran in New York magazine in June 2019.

In the book excerpt, she said she was shopping at the Bergdorf-Goodman department store in New York when Mr Trump approached her and struck up a conversation, with him asking her for help picking out a gift for a woman.

She then alleged that he took her to the lingerie section of the store and asked her to try on an item for him in a dressing room before pinning her up against a wall and sexually assaulting her for three minutes.

At the time, Ms Carroll said the emergence of the #MeToo movement in late 2017 motivated her to tell her story publicly.

Mr Trump addressed the allegations days later when pressed on them by reporters at the White House.

He claimed he had “never met her” and denied raping her by telling the White House press corps that Ms Carrol was “not [his] type”.

He also accused her of lying to boost sales of her memoir.

“She is trying to sell a new book – that should indicate her motivation,” the then-president said, adding that her book “should be sold in the fiction section”.

Ms Carroll pushed back on his claims, sharing a photo of herself and Mr Trump together with his then-wife Ivana Trump and her then-husband John Johnson at an NBC party in 1987 to show they had met.

In her 2019 defamation suit against Mr Trump, she alleged his denials had caused her “to suffer reputational, emotional, and professional harm” and said she was suing “to obtain redress for those injuries and to demonstrate that even a man as powerful as Trump can be held accountable under the rule of law”.

VOICES: Do not let Donald Trump run for president after the rape trial

Tuesday 25 April 2023 15:30 , Lucy Anna Gray

Donald Trump will be the focus of a civil rape trial in New York this week.

Journalist and author E Jean Carroll accused the former president of raping her in a dressing room at a department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s. Trump has denied the allegation, infamously claiming that Carroll “was not [his] type” (someone ‘not being your type’ as a defence for rape lives in the same sphere as ‘well, what was she wearing?’). However, Trump’s bizarre protestation has even more holes in it. When shown a picture of Carroll from the 1990s – the same woman who was apparently ‘not his type’ – Trump said: “That’s my wife,” confusing her with his ex-wife Marla Maples.

It is thought that Carroll will not be alone in claiming Donald Trump assaulted her. Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff are expected to testify during the trial, saying that the one-term president sexually assaulted them. Leeds has alleged that Trump grabbed her breast and tried to reach up her skirt on a flight to New York.

Read more:

Do not let Trump run for president after the rape trial | Voices

PHOTOS: E Jean Carroll arrives at New York federal court as Trump stays away

Tuesday 25 April 2023 15:16 , Gustaf Kilander

Trump says ‘I know what happened’ with Tucker Carlson after Fox News firing

Tuesday 25 April 2023 15:06 , Gustaf Kilander

Second lawsuit makes it to court

Tuesday 25 April 2023 15:00 , Andrew Feinberg

The magazine columnist spoke out about the allegations for the first time in 2019 when Mr Trump was president.

After he denied the allegations and accused her of lying in a bid to bolster sales of her forthcoming book, she filed a defamation lawsuit against him in November 2019.

That suit stalled in the courts for years and is yet to make it to trial.

Then, last year, New York lawmakers passed the state’s Adult Survivors Act, giving sexual abuse victims a one-year window to sue attackers for assaults that took place years ago.

That law paved the way for Ms Carroll to file a second lawsuit against the former president in November accusing him of both raping her and then defaming her years later by denying the assault took place.

That second lawsuit – seeking damages and a retraction of his denial – is now scheduled to play out in a New York court this week.

Law professor says ‘pieces are arranged for’ Trump ‘to be absolutely shellacked'

Tuesday 25 April 2023 14:49 , Gustaf Kilander

Law professor Harry Litman wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that “Trump’s biggest date yet with accountability is the E Jean Carroll trial that begins in NY federal court today. The pieces are arranged for him to be absolutely shellacked. And to come off as a liar, bully, and sexual predator”.

Trump on trial: What to know about the E Jean Carroll rape case

Tuesday 25 April 2023 14:30 , Andrew Feinberg

Decades after she was allegedly raped by a New York real estate mogul who would go on to be the 45th President of the United States, E Jean Carroll is getting her day in court.

Ms Carroll, a writer and former advice columnist for Elle magazine, is the plaintiff in a pair of civil lawsuits against former president Donald Trump.

One of those lawsuits will now be presented in a New York City federal courtroom starting Tuesday 25 April, when a jury will be chosen under the supervision of US District Judge Lewis Kaplan.

Those jurors, who will remain anonymous on Judge Kaplan’s orders due to the risk of threats, intimidation or outright violence against anyone seen as an enemy by Mr Trump and his supporters, will hear evidence of allegations made by Ms Carroll against the twice-impeached and indicted ex-president.

Ms Carroll has claimed that Mr Trump raped her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s.

Read more:

Trump on trial: What to know about the E Jean Carroll rape case

What are the allegations in E Jean Carroll’s rape case against Donald Trump?

Tuesday 25 April 2023 14:00 , Ariana Baio

Jury selection in E Jean Carroll‘s civil suit against former president Donald Trump begins today.

Here’s what you need to know about the allegations in the rape case before trial begins.

Bevan Hurley reports:

What are the allegations at the centre of E Jean Carroll’s rape case against Trump?

Biden expected to launch new campaign via video announcement

Tuesday 25 April 2023 13:30 , Shweta Sharma

Joe Biden is expected to launch his re-election bid today, exactly four years after his first successful campaign launch.

The president will launch his campaign with a video which is expected to look a lot like his messaging and policy moves from the past few months, reported The Associated Press.

This will include playing up accomplishments from his first two years, drawing a sharp contrast with Republican policies he deems extreme.

On Monday, the president said to reporters: “I told you I’m planning on running.

“I’ll let you know real soon.”

Unlike his previous election bid, Mr Biden will have to juggle the challenge of running for office with the demands of running the country.

“The single best thing Joe Biden can do for his reelection is to continue to be president of United States, and, when he’s out there barnstorming the country, talking about what he’s delivered and what he wants to do,” Eric Schultz, a Democratic operative and spokesperson for former president Barack Obama was quoted as saying.

“That’s exactly what he’s been doing.”

According to the president’s aides, he will ramp up fundraising in the coming weeks both for himself and the party.

Aides said Mr Biden intends to follow a roadmap similar to Mr Obama, who launched his reelection campaign in April 2011 but waited 13 months to hold his first official reelection campaign rally in May 2012.

Trump says DeSantis should undergo an ‘emergency personality transplant’

Tuesday 25 April 2023 13:00 , Ariana Baio

Donald Trump continues to troll Ron DeSantis by claiming the Florida governor is being sent to Walter Reed Army Medical Center for an “emergency personality transplant”.

The former president took to Truth Social on Sunday night for his latest attack on the man believed to be his biggest Republican threat in the 2024 presidential race.

Calling him by his favourite nickname of “Ron DeSanctimonious”, Mr Trump once again took credit for “put[-ting]” Mr DeSantis in his current position as governor of Florida.

“The Globalist, China hawking and RINO infiltrated Club For No Growth, which now wants to give up backing Ron DeSanctimonious because they realize there is no personality or people skills there, are beside themselves, and just don’t know what to do,” he ranted.

“Florida has the Sun & the Ocean, and was GREAT long before I put Ron there. The semi-elite “No Growthers” are considering sending Ron to the great Walter Reed Medical Center for an emergency personality transplant. His poll numbers are crashing!”

Donald Trump to follow in Joe Biden’s footsteps and visit Ireland next month

Tuesday 25 April 2023 12:30 , Shweta Sharma

Former US president Donald Trump is to visit Ireland next month.

It will come just weeks after his successor Joe Biden took part in a four-day visit to the island of Ireland.

There is speculation the two men who went head to head in the 2020 US presidential election could again be candidates in 2024.

Bill Clinton, another former US president, is also a recent visitor to Northern Ireland, where he took part in a major conference to mark the 25 anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.

Donald Trump to follow in Joe Biden’s footsteps and visit Ireland next month

A timeline of Trump’s marriages and sexual assault allegations ahead of E Jean Carroll trial

Tuesday 25 April 2023 12:00 , Ariana Baio

Ahead of a trial involving E Jean Carroll, who accused the former president of sexual assault, this is a timeline of his marriages and the sexual misconduct allegations he’s faced.

Chelsea Ritschel reports:

A timeline of Trump’s marriages and sexual assault allegations

Jury selection set to start in rape lawsuit against Trump

Tuesday 25 April 2023 11:30 , Shweta Sharma

For decades, former president Donald Trump has seemed to shake off allegations, investigations and even impeachments. Now his “Teflon Don” reputation is about to face a new test: a jury of average citizens in a lawsuit accusing him of rape.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Tuesday in a trial over former advice columnist’s E Jean Carroll’s claim that Mr Trump raped her nearly three decades ago in a department store dressing room. He denies it.

The trial is in a federal civil court, meaning that no matter the outcome, Mr Trump isn’t in danger of going to jail. He isn’t required to be in court, either, and his lawyers have indicated he most likely won’t testify. But the trial, which comes as Mr Trump is again running for president, still has the potential to be politically damaging for the Republicans.

The jury is poised to hear a reprisal of stories of sexual misconduct that rocked his 2016 presidential campaign, allegations he claimed were falsehoods spun up to try to stop him from winning.

Ms Carroll is expected to testify about a chance encounter with Trump in late 1995 or early 1996 that she says turned violent.

Most Americans don’t want Trump or Biden to run again, poll finds

Tuesday 25 April 2023 11:00 , Ariana Baio

A recent Hart Research poll commissioned by NBC News found a significant majority of Americans would prefer that Donald Trump nor Joe Biden run for president in 2024.

A full 70 per cent of Americans — including a bare 51 per cent majority of self-identified Democrats surveyed — said Mr Biden shouldn’t run for another term, while 60 per cent of respondents, including 33 per cent of Republicans contacted, said Mr Trump should step aside as well.

Andrew Feinberg reports:

Most Americans don’t want Trump or Biden to run again, poll finds

How Joe Biden is preparing for a potential rematch with Trump in 2024

Tuesday 25 April 2023 10:30 , Shweta Sharma

President Joe Biden’s anticipated announcement of his 2024 re-election campaign couldn’t come at a better — or worse — time for the 46th President of the United States.

Mr Biden is widely expected to unveil his fourth and final campaign for the presidency in a video to be released on Tuesday, the fourth anniversary of when he launched the successful 2020 campaign that put him in the White House after four years of Donald Trump.

The announcement, which a person close to Mr Biden said is still not “100 per cent finalised”, has been widely expected for months now.

On multiple occasions, the president has said he intends to run for re-election, but until now he has refrained from formally declaring himself a candidate. Aides have attributed the delay to Mr Biden’s natural reticence when it comes to making big decisions, as well as the lack of significant opposition in his own party and the general dysfunction on the Republican side, which appears to be leading to a rematch between Mr Biden and Mr Trump.

Andrew Feinberg and John Bowden have all the details in their full story.

Biden 2024: The polls, the politics and why he needs Trump

Donald Trump mourns ‘very good man’ Tucker Carlson after shock departure of Fox’s MAGA mouthpiece

Tuesday 25 April 2023 09:30 , Shweta Sharma

Donald Trump said he was stunned by the surprise exit of ally Tucker Carlson in his first reaction to the departure of Fox News’s prime-time host who had the dubious honour as a (Make America Great Again) MAGA propagandist.

“I was shocked,” Mr Trump said in an interview with Newsmax that aired late on Monday.

Read our full report.

Donald Trump mourns ‘very good man’ Tucker Carlson after shock Fox departure

Voices: Do not let Donald Trump run for president after the rape trial

Tuesday 25 April 2023 09:00 , Ariana Baio

VOICES: “Simply put, Donald Trump should not be allowed to run for president. The setting of brazen precedents is a dangerous path to go down.”

Lucy Gray writes:

Do not let Trump run for president after the rape trial | Voices

Trump claims without evidence that Biden is ‘most corrupt president in US history’

Tuesday 25 April 2023 08:30 , Shweta Sharma

Donald Trump has called Joe Biden the “most corrupt president in American history”, launching into a largely unfounded verbal assault on his Democrat rival as Mr Biden is expected to announce his 2024 re-election bid.

In a blistering statement, Mr Trump said: “You could take the five worst presidents in American history, and put them together, and they would not have done the damage Joe Biden has done to our Nation in just a few short years. Not even close.”

He slammed Mr Biden for “the worst inflation in half a century”, “failing” banks, the US currency crashing and a fall of real wages.

“Under my leadership, we had the most secure border in US history, by far. Never had a border like this. Under Biden, the Southern Border has been abolished—and millions of illegal aliens have been released into our communities. What’s happening now is beyond belief,” he said.

He said Mr Biden has “totally humiliated our Nation on the world stage”, calling the withdrawal from Afghanistan a disaster.

“I’m not predicting World War III, but I will say this: we’re very close and they’re only talking about nuclear weapons,” he said referring to the invasion of Ukraine.