By Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The writer who accused Donald Trump of shattering her reputation by denying he assaulted her nearly three decades ago is expected on Thursday to finish testifying at a civil trial to determine how much the former U.S. president owes in damages.
E. Jean Carroll, 80, a former Elle magazine advice columnist testified on Wednesday that Trump’s lies destroyed her reputation for telling the truth and exposed her to online attacks that persist.
Carroll will face additional questioning on Thursday from one of Trump’s lawyers in federal court in Manhattan.
Others expected to testify at the trial include a former Elle editor-in-chief and a Northwestern University professor who may help jurors quantify how much Trump should pay.
Trump has said he wants to testify, and could do so next week.
Trump was in court for Carroll’s testimony on Wednesday, but has said he wanted to skip Thursday’s trial session to attend his mother-in-law’s funeral in Florida. He need not attend the trial because his lawyers are present.
Trump, a Republican, has used his legal travails to rally supporters and raise funds for his 2024 White House run.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in four state and federal criminal cases, including two claiming that he tried to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Carroll is seeking at least $10 million in damages from Trump, saying he lied in 2019 when as U.S. president he denied having attacked her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan.
Last May, a jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million, finding he had sexually abused her, and then defamed her in 2022 by denying that anything happened.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversees both cases, has ruled that Trump sexually abused Carroll by forcing his fingers into her vagina, and defamed her in 2019. The job of the nine-person jury in the current case is to decide damages.
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba has tried to show during cross-examination that Carroll was already being attacked online before Trump spoke up, and that Carroll welcomed the fame and attention from having gone public.
During a break in Wednesday’s trial, Kaplan warned Trump he might be ejected from the trial if he kept making comments that the jury could hear.
Carroll’s lawyers had said they could hear Trump calling the case a “witch hunt” and “con job.”
Trump had skipped Carroll’s first trial.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Leslie Adler)
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