Just weeks after former President Donald Trump became the first former president to face criminal charges, a jury in New York will decide whether he's guilty of defaming a woman when he denied her sexual assault allegations.
The civil trial is slated to begin April 25 in one of former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll's pair of lawsuits against the former president over his denials that he raped her in the 1990s.
TRUMP ATTENDING RAPE DEFAMATION TRIAL WOULD 'BURDEN' NYC AND COURT: LAWYERS
Carroll, 79, could be owed damages by the former president if she can convince a full slate of jurors that he more likely than not defamed her in an October 2022 post on his Truth Social platform.
Trump, now 76, previously claimed Carroll's allegation is a "Hoax and a lie" she used to promote her memoir and went on to say she wasn't his "type."
The defamation case comes at a pivotal moment amid legal and investigative scrutiny for the former president. Whether or not Trump attends the trial, it will mark the third time in a month that Trump's attorneys have come to New York for a legal proceeding. He was arraigned on criminal charges brought by the Manhattan district attorney and deposed in the attorney general's civil fraud lawsuit. Trump has denied wrongdoing in all the cases surrounding him.
While Trump's other legal woes surround allegations of financial fraud and falsifying business records, Carroll's case focuses on allegations of sexual violence.
The former magazine columnist is also suing for battery under a New York state law that provides adult victims a one-year window to sue their alleged abuser despite the previous statute of limitations barriers.
Carroll contends Trump raped her at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in late 1995 or early 1996. Trump has vehemently denied such allegations.
She sued Trump for defamation in November 2019, five months after he first denied her rape claims. Trump has argued he was legally immune from Carroll's first lawsuit because he spoke in his capacity as president.
Carroll is planning to make an appearance at the trial daily, which is expected to last five to seven days.
Trump's attorney, Joseph Tacopina, has repeatedly expressed confidence in Trump's defense for the trial. Aspects such as Carroll's memory, including her inability to remember the date or the month of the alleged attack, could be surfaced by the defense.
Carroll is expected to testify, as well as two friends she claimed she spoke to soon after the alleged rape. Those women include Lisa Birnbach, who wrote The Official Preppy Handbook, and former New York news anchor Carol Martin.
Additionally, two women who also say Trump sexually assaulted them, Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, are on Carroll's witness list. Trump has also denied their claims.
Jurors will also be able to hear the 2005 Access Hollywood tape in which Trump boasts that he can grab women by the genitals because he is a star.
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The jury could have six to 12 members, though it would only take one person to side with Trump for him to avoid liability.
Carroll's first lawsuit has been in legal limbo. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit just returned the case to U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton and the same judge presiding over the trial on Tuesday.