by Mark Schwendau
Jury selection began this week in the civil sexual assault and defamation suit brought against former President Donald Trump by the writer E. Jean Carroll. Her first suit came in November of 2019, where she alleged defamation. Carroll published an article in New York magazine recounting the alleged rape; Trump responded, saying that Carroll was lying, adding, “She’s not my type.” That suit got tied up in disputes about the proper role of the Department of Justice in defending the then-president.
A second suit was filed in November 2022 under New York’s Adult Survivors Act. This gave Carroll a one-year window to sue. Otherwise, the civil claim of sexual assault would not be allowable under the statute of limitations. Like the first suit, the second one contains a defamation claim.
Carroll accused President Trump of “causing significant pain and suffering, lasting psychological harms, loss of dignity, and invasion of her privacy.” Trump’s lawyers argue that the statute under which Carroll brought the assault claim violates due process and calls the defamation claim “baseless.”
Carroll claims that in the 1990s, Trump raped her in the changing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan.
“As a result of the pain and suffering caused by Trump’s sexual assault, Carroll has not been able to sustain a romantic relationship since the day Trump raped her,” Carroll’s suit claims. Also, in the suit, it states she has been unable to have sexual or romantic relationships with men since that day.
Trump’s lawyers are expected to mount a defense that Carroll’s nearly 30-year-old claims cannot be proven and that Carroll was motivated by the potential for book sales and publicity. Trump’s team says it may call Dr. Edgar Nace, a psychiatrist, and President Trump himself.
Carroll has sued Trump twice before, and both matters are said to be still active.
Carroll’s lawyers have said they may produce a number of witnesses to support her claims which could include Bergdorf Goodman staffers, two friends in whom Carroll confided not long after the alleged rape, and two women who have publicly claimed Trump sexually assaulted them, Natasha Stoynoff and Jessica Leeds. The Carroll legal team may also show jurors excerpts from the “Access Hollywood” video where Trump bragged about sexually grabbing women to Billy Bush (Trump later claimed the aired statement was “locker room talk” not to be taken seriously as he did not know he was being recorded).
The hidden camera interview infuriated Trump supporters as it was revealed Billy is a member of the Bush famil, a nephew of President George H. W. Bush and cousin of President George W. Bush and former Florida governor Jeb Bush. At the time, Jeb was running in the primaries against Donald Trump. Billy’s life got turned upside down shortly thereafter.
What is most interesting about this case is not being widely reported. Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, is helping pay for E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit against former President Donald J. Trump, as reported by The New York Times. Hoffman’s financial tie to the lawsuit was just recently disclosed in a letter to Judge Lewis A. Kaplan from Trump’s attorneys, who said they only learned of Hoffman’s role earlier this month from Carroll’s legal team.
The Trump attorney’s letter accuses Carroll’s side of covering up Hoffman’s role, saying this liaison raises “significant questions” about her credibility. The attorneys also call Carroll’s case a “hoax … to advance a political agenda.” Trump’s attorneys asked for a one-month postponement of the trial to investigate this recent revelation of funding. The judge responded he would not delay the trial but would allow Trump’s legal team to conduct a brief investigation into the funding issue.
In a letter to the judge, Carroll’s attorneys said the financial support for “certain costs and fees” was irrelevant and that Carroll did not ask for the money. They said Hoffman only supplied the funding in 2020, a year after Carroll filed her lawsuit in 2019. The amount of Hoffman’s funding has not been revealed.
Hoffman has a long history of funding Democrat candidates opposed to President Trump and his policies. The billionaire tech entrepreneur co-founded LinkedIn in 2002. It went public in 2011 and was acquired by Microsoft for $26 billion in 2016.
As a civil case, if a jury found in Carroll’s favor, Trump would not be considered a criminal rapist under the law. Carroll’s recollections about the alleged event have varied from one interview to the next. In a 2019 interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Carroll said her alleged encounter with Trump was not so much a rape but a “fight.” Revelations like this lead to speculation she might not make for a very good witness on the stand during cross-examination.
Carroll is asking for unspecified damages and demanding that Trump retract an allegedly defamatory statement he made about her. The case was scheduled to begin with jury selection for a trial in a New York federal court on Tuesday, April 25.
Copyright © 2023 by Mark S. Schwendau
Mark S. Schwendau is a retired technology professor who has always had a sideline in news-editorial writing where his byline has been, “Bringing little known news to people who simply want to know the truth.” He classifies himself as a Christian conservative who God cast to be a realist. His website is www.IDrawIWrite.Tech.