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Donald Trump in Court for Second Defamation Trial After Iowa Victory
Former U.S. President Donald Trump, E. Jean Carroll and their lawyers stand for the jury as they attend jury selection in the second civil trial after Carroll accused Trump of raping her decades ago, at Manhattan Federal Court in New York City, U.S., January 16, 2024 in this courtroom sketch. Image: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg
Fresh off a campaign victory in Iowa, former US President Donald Trump sat in a New York courtroom on Tuesday to defend himself for a second time against charges that he defamed writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of raping her decades ago.
Trump watched from the defendant’s table as a nine-person jury was chosen for a civil case that will put allegations of misconduct back in the headlines while he pursues the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Opening arguments were expected later in the afternoon.
Trump sat two tables behind Carroll, who is accusing Trump of defaming her in 2019 by denying he had attacked her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan. Carroll, 80, is seeking at least $10 million in damages.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan told prospective jurors they would only have to consider how much Trump should pay Carroll in damages, not whether the alleged assault took place or whether Trump lied about it afterward. He said the trial is expected to last three to five days.
Trump, 77, has said he wants to testify at the civil trial.
He could spend much of this year shuttling between campaign rallies and courtrooms, as he seeks to win the Republican presidential nomination for 2024.
He won the first state contest in Iowa on Monday by a wide margin, and opinion polls show him leading in the next contest in New Hampshire a week from today.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in four criminal cases that could potentially land him in prison before the November presidential election, including two that accuse him of trying to overturn his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden. He also is a defendant in at least two other civil cases.
Trump has cast himself as the victim of political persecution. On Tuesday, he said Kaplan should dismiss the case.
“Judge Kaplan should put this whole corrupt, Crooked Joe Biden-directed Election Interference attack on me immediately to rest,” he posted on social media. “He should do it for America.”
Trump‘s high profile was apparent as prospective jurors were screened for the case. Many acknowledged they were familiar with Trump‘s various legal troubles, though none said they knew the details of the first defamation trial.
Many said they had backed Democratic candidates in previous elections, reflecting the New York City area’s left-leaning tilt, and one said she had volunteered for Biden’s 2020 campaign.
Two others said they believed Trump‘s false claims that the election had been stolen from him. One said she used to work for his daughter Ivanka. They were not chosen for the jury.
Jurors’ identities are being kept confidential.
Trump has already lost one defamation case against Carroll.
A jury last May ordered Trump to pay the former Elle magazine columnist $5 million for having sexually abused her during the encounter, and defaming her in 2022 by denying that it happened. Trump skipped that trial.
Kaplan, who has overseen both cases, has barred Trump from arguing that he did not defame or sexually assault Carroll or that she made up her account.
In both cases, Trump has said he did not know Carroll and that she invented their encounter to sell her memoir.
Trump is appealing the $5 million award, and could appeal any award at the second trial. Appeals could take years.
In recent weeks, Trump has escalated his attacks on Carroll, including a false accusation on social media this weekend that she did not know the decade of their encounter.
He also called Kaplan “terrible, biased, irrationally angry,” echoing attacks he has made on judges overseeing some of his other cases.
Trump may face an uphill fight to escape significant additional damages because of Kaplan’s pre-trial rulings.
These include banning Trump from suggesting he did not rape Carroll, as New York’s penal law defines the term, because the first jury did not find that Trump committed rape.
Kaplan has ruled that because Trump used his fingers in the assault, Carroll’s rape claim was “substantially true.”
Trump also cannot discuss DNA evidence or Carroll’s sexual activities, or suggest that Democrats are bankrolling her case. Carroll is a Democrat.
And as at the first trial, jurors will be able to see the 2005 “Access Hollywood” video where Trump graphically described the ability of famous people like himself to have sexual relations with beautiful women.
Trump did not retract his comments when asked about them in a 2022 deposition. Kaplan has said the video could offer “useful insight into Mr. Trump‘s state of mind” toward Carroll.
Trump lawyer Alina Habba on Sunday assured Kaplan that he was “well aware” of the court’s rulings “and the strict confines placed on his testimony.”
The post Donald Trump in Court for Second Defamation Trial After Iowa Victory first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Palestinian Foreign Minister Says Recognition Brings Independence, Sovereignty Closer
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza due to an Israeli military operation, move southward, using a vehicle packed with personal belongings, after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south, in the central Gaza Strip, September 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin said countries recognizing a Palestinian state this week were taking an irreversible step that preserved the two-state solution and brought Palestinian independence and sovereignty closer.
Britain, Canada and Australia formally recognized a Palestinian state on Sunday, joining other nations in a move aimed at reviving momentum for a two-state solution but which has been criticized by Israel and the United States.
“Now is the time. Tomorrow is a historic date we need to build on. It’s not the end,” Shahin told reporters in Ramallah.
“It is a move bringing us closer to sovereignty and independence. It might not end the war tomorrow, but it’s a move forward, which we need to build on and amplify,” she said, referring to Israel’s nearly two-year military campaign in Gaza.
NETANYAHU SAYS THERE WILL NEVER BE A PALESTINIAN STATE
Israel has sharply criticized the step, with some ministers dismissing it as irrelevant, saying it does not change the realities on the ground. Others have insisted that a Palestinian state can only be achieved through direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this month declared there would never be a Palestinian state.
Shahin said that Israel had no intention of negotiating, citing Netanyahu’s remarks at a ceremony this month to build a new settlement in the West Bank that would cut off northern Palestinian communities from those in the south.
“This recognition is certainly not symbolic. It is a practical, tangible, irreversible step that countries must take if they are invested in preserving the two-state solution,” Shahin said.
France and Saudi Arabia have led efforts to revive momentum for the two-state solution, with several countries to recognize a Palestinian state this week at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has dismissed the efforts as a stunt and counterproductive. Israeli officials have hardened their positions on settlement construction and West Bank annexation as international momentum for Palestinian statehood has grown.
Israel has faced growing diplomatic isolation this year, as many of its closest allies, with the exception of the US, have condemned its assault on Gaza. Some have sanctioned Israeli ministers for inciting violence against Palestinians.
Shahin said political pressure on Israel must shift to economic measures “to hold Israel accountable and protect the Palestinian people.”
“Today, Gaza burns. Today, Gaza is destroyed. Today in Gaza, people are systematically murdered,” Shahin said, accusing Israel of perpetrating genocide in Gaza, an allegation Israel denies.
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Israel Making Progress on Syria Pact But Deal Still Far Off, Netanyahu Says
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the opening event of the largest-ever bipartisan delegation of American legislators to Israel at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem on Sept. 15, 2025. Photo: Debbie Hill/Pool via REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday there has been progress on a security deal with Syria but an agreement was not imminent.
Speaking at the outset of a cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said victory against Hezbollah in Lebanon had opened up the possibility of peace with Israel’s northern neighbors.
“We are holding talks with the Syrians, there is some progress, but there was still a ways to go,” he said. “In any case these discussions, as well as the contacts with Lebanon, would not have been possible without our decisive victories on the northern front and others.”
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He said a security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
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Erdogan Says Palestine, US Ties and Syria Talks on Agenda in US Trip
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday he will raise the subject of Israel’s “massacres” in Gaza at the U.N. General Assembly and voiced hope that wider recognition of Palestine would speed efforts for a two-state solution.
Speaking to reporters before departing for New York, Erdogan said he would discuss cooperation on trade and the defense industry with US President Donald Trump, and that he would also meet Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa during his trip.