1 00:00:01,933 --> 00:00:04,433 AMNA NAWAZ: A civil trial is under way over a magazine columnist's allegation 2 00:00:04,433 --> 00:00:08,566 that former President Donald Trump raped her more than two decades ago. 3 00:00:08,566 --> 00:00:13,366 Political correspondent Lisa Desjardins takes a look at the lawsuit and the 4 00:00:13,366 --> 00:00:15,466 assault allegations against the former president. 5 00:00:15,466 --> 00:00:20,400 And a warning: This story contains details of those sexual violence allegations. 6 00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:25,400 LISA DESJARDINS: It is the latest legal battle involving former President Trump. E. Jean Carroll, 7 00:00:28,133 --> 00:00:32,900 a magazine advice columnist, has accused Trump of raping her in the mid-'90s. 8 00:00:32,900 --> 00:00:37,766 In a civil lawsuit filed in New York, Carroll is seeking unspecified damages 9 00:00:37,766 --> 00:00:42,733 for the alleged assault. She also accuses Trump of defaming her character. The trial 10 00:00:44,733 --> 00:00:47,233 is expected to last for one or two weeks. Carroll says the assault took 11 00:00:47,233 --> 00:00:51,033 place in a dressing room inside Bergdorf Goodman, a New York department store. 12 00:00:51,033 --> 00:00:54,033 Here is how she described it to CNN in 2019. 13 00:00:54,033 --> 00:00:55,800 E. JEAN CARROLL, Trump Accuser: He pulled down my tights. 14 00:00:57,866 --> 00:01:02,300 And it was a fight. It was a -- I want women to know that I did not stand there. I did not 15 00:01:04,733 --> 00:01:09,733 freeze. I was not paralyzed, which is a reaction that I could have had, because it's so shocking. 16 00:01:11,633 --> 00:01:15,300 No, I fought. And it was over very quickly. It was against my will, 100 percent. 17 00:01:17,333 --> 00:01:21,833 LISA DESJARDINS: Carroll revealed the story 20 years after she says it happened in her 2019 18 00:01:24,366 --> 00:01:27,200 memoir. She can go to court now because New York lawmakers passed a new state law allowing victims 19 00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:33,800 of abuse to file civil lawsuits against attackers, even if the statute of limitations has run out. 20 00:01:35,666 --> 00:01:39,600 The former president has repeatedly denied that he raped Carroll, and accused her of 21 00:01:39,600 --> 00:01:44,133 lying. In an interview with The Hill, he said Carroll was -- quote -- "not my type." 22 00:01:44,133 --> 00:01:49,100 He also previously claimed that he had never met Carroll, but her attorneys have provided the court 23 00:01:51,166 --> 00:01:54,366 of a picture of them talking at an event in the '80s. Trump is not expected to testify in this 24 00:01:56,433 --> 00:02:00,433 trial, but two other women who have accused Trump of assault have been cleared to do so. 25 00:02:00,433 --> 00:02:05,400 Jessica Leeds alleged Trump groped her on the flight in 1979. And "People" magazine 26 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:11,400 writer Natasha Stoynoff has accused him of groping her in 2005 at Mar-a-Lago while she 27 00:02:13,466 --> 00:02:17,333 was there to interview him. More than two dozen women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct. 28 00:02:19,366 --> 00:02:22,566 He has charged that the stories are fabricated and politically motivated. Carroll's defamation 29 00:02:24,466 --> 00:02:28,033 accusation is part of a separate suit filed in D.C. That has been indefinitely delayed. 30 00:02:30,466 --> 00:02:34,700 Today, in Manhattan, a jury was selected, and both sides presented opening arguments in this case. 31 00:02:36,166 --> 00:02:38,266 Washington Post reporter Shayna Jacobs covers two of New York's 32 00:02:38,266 --> 00:02:41,700 federal court districts and was in the courtroom today. And she joins us now. 33 00:02:41,700 --> 00:02:45,300 Shayna, take us into the courtroom. What did each 34 00:02:45,300 --> 00:02:48,200 side seem to indicate about their approach to this case? 35 00:02:48,200 --> 00:02:53,166 SHAYNA JACOBS, The Washington Post: Each side presented a vastly different version of events. 36 00:02:56,133 --> 00:03:01,100 On Carroll's side, her attorney said that Carroll was violently assaulted 37 00:03:02,900 --> 00:03:07,733 in the dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s and that she fled from 38 00:03:10,900 --> 00:03:15,900 the store, told -- immediately told two close friends and kept it secret for decades because 39 00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:23,866 she was terrified that Trump could ruin her life and ruin her career. 40 00:03:23,866 --> 00:03:28,866 At the time, he was a very, very prominent real estate professional. And, obviously, 41 00:03:31,366 --> 00:03:36,366 his profile only rose since then. Trump's attorney says this entire thing was made up, 42 00:03:39,166 --> 00:03:44,166 and that Carroll and her two friends actually colluded to come up with a story because of 43 00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:52,433 a political vendetta against him once he -- once he was elected. 44 00:03:52,433 --> 00:03:55,866 LISA DESJARDINS: The judge in his case is known for being no-nonsense, 45 00:03:55,866 --> 00:03:58,033 trying to move things along. 46 00:03:58,033 --> 00:04:02,100 Help us understand the judge and the jury here, including how the judge is keeping the 47 00:04:04,100 --> 00:04:07,366 jury safe. And how in the world do you pick a jury that is neutral about Donald Trump? 48 00:04:07,366 --> 00:04:11,700 SHAYNA JACOBS: So, not even the judge knows their 49 00:04:11,700 --> 00:04:16,433 identities. They are known only by their assigned juror number. 50 00:04:18,366 --> 00:04:22,700 There was not much biographical information made public during the voir dire process. And 51 00:04:25,266 --> 00:04:30,233 they will also be picked up off-site by courthouse staff and driven to the courthouse, so that they 52 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:39,000 don't even have any chance of interacting with anyone outside the building or in the hallway. 53 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:45,500 They're really very, very protected from any possible interaction with someone they're not 54 00:04:48,300 --> 00:04:53,300 supposed to see or speak to. And, again, not even the judge has their identities in front 55 00:04:56,133 --> 00:05:01,133 of him. So it's basically as private as it - - private a process as it could possibly be. 56 00:05:03,033 --> 00:05:05,433 LISA DESJARDINS: And on the question of neutrality, I saw that jurors were 57 00:05:05,433 --> 00:05:08,933 asked if they have been to rallies, those kinds of things. Is that how they did that? 58 00:05:10,933 --> 00:05:15,900 SHAYNA JACOBS: Yes, I mean, it was posed to the entire room of potential jurors. And instead 59 00:05:18,633 --> 00:05:23,633 of going one by one and asking that, anybody who had been to a rally, anybody with an affiliation, 60 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:32,400 really with sort of like more extreme group on the spectrum, both left and right -- some 61 00:05:36,166 --> 00:05:41,166 of the names that were thrown out were Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, QAnon, Antifa. 62 00:05:43,166 --> 00:05:47,400 So they were asked, are you a member of or are you affiliated with any of these groups? And 63 00:05:49,366 --> 00:05:52,433 I believe nobody raised their hand to that question. If they had raised their hand, 64 00:05:52,433 --> 00:05:55,666 I imagine they'd have been dismissed. 65 00:05:55,666 --> 00:05:58,900 LISA DESJARDINS: What does Ms. Carroll need to show here in this 66 00:05:58,900 --> 00:06:03,866 civil trial to be successful in her lawsuit? What does she need to prove? 67 00:06:03,866 --> 00:06:08,866 SHAYNA JACOBS: E. Jean Carroll, yes, she has to prove by a preponderance of the evidence, 68 00:06:11,300 --> 00:06:14,033 which is really essentially means more likely than not, that she was -- that she suffered harm as a 69 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:24,800 result of this, emotional harm, and that her career in her life, livelihood was damaged, 70 00:06:29,266 --> 00:06:34,266 that she suffered reputational damage as a result of what Donald Trump said, 71 00:06:36,700 --> 00:06:41,700 really, though, specifically, just what he said last year in a social media post, 72 00:06:43,766 --> 00:06:48,233 which mirrored comments he made to reporters in 2019 when this first came out. 73 00:06:50,700 --> 00:06:54,366 So it's sort of like a duplicate set of defamation charges. There's a separate lawsuit still pending 74 00:06:56,733 --> 00:07:01,733 in an appellate court for the older defamation claims from 2019. But she is -- this 75 00:07:04,200 --> 00:07:09,200 trial does contain defamation and battery allegations related to the alleged assault. 76 00:07:12,033 --> 00:07:16,066 LISA DESJARDINS: The former president has given some testimony and deposition. He's not expected, 77 00:07:16,066 --> 00:07:18,166 I don't think, to be a live witness yet, 78 00:07:18,166 --> 00:07:20,133 but do we know if he will be in the courtroom? Or what does that look like? 79 00:07:21,766 --> 00:07:26,700 SHAYNA JACOBS: His attorney has not -- last I saw -- I did leave 80 00:07:26,700 --> 00:07:28,766 a little bit before the proceeding ended. 81 00:07:28,766 --> 00:07:33,200 But last I saw and heard, his attorney, Joe Tacopina, has not fully committed either way. He 82 00:07:36,333 --> 00:07:41,333 did tell the jury that he expected they would hear his videotaped deposition from last year. So, all 83 00:07:47,433 --> 00:07:52,433 indications are that he's not going to testify. I -- that still leaves open the possibility 84 00:07:54,400 --> 00:07:58,200 that he might appear in the courtroom just to physically be there at one point or another. 85 00:07:58,200 --> 00:08:03,200 But we have not heard any definitive thing that would lead us to believe 86 00:08:04,666 --> 00:08:07,300 he will -- he will be there in the next few days or next week. 87 00:08:07,300 --> 00:08:10,233 LISA DESJARDINS: Shayna Jacobs with The Washington Post, thanks for joining us, 88 00:08:10,233 --> 00:08:11,566 especially when you're on deadline. 89 00:08:11,566 --> 00:08:13,433 SHAYNA JACOBS: Thank you.