Accusations that Donald Trump sexually assaulted women were supposed to sink his campaign in 2016. They didn’t. Now, those claims will be put to the test in court just as the former president is ramping up another run for the White House.
The trial of a civil suit by New York author E. Jean Carroll, who claims Trump raped her in the 1990s, started Tuesday in Manhattan with jury selection and opening statements. It has familiar themes from Trump’s first campaign for office, including testimony by two other women who claim he sexually assaulted them and audio from the so-called Access Hollywood tape of the real estate mogul and reality TV star discussing how easy it was for famous men to grope women without consent.
Despite being twice impeached while in office, criminal charges over alleged hush-money payments to a porn star, and an ongoing government probe of his role in the 2021 attack on the US Capitol, Trump is leading in early polls of Republican voters.