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A4 U.S. NEWS
Wednesday 26 april 2023

Trial opens in E. Jean Carroll’s rape lawsuit against Trump

By LARRY NEUMEISTER and They were questioned
JENNIFER PELTZ about their news-watching
Associated Press habits, political donations
NEW YORK (AP) — A former and support for any of a
advice columnist’s nearly roster of right- and left-wing
30-year-old rape claim groups. They were asked,
against Donald Trump went too, whether they used
to trial Tuesday as jurors in Trump’s social media plat-
the federal civil case heard form, read Carroll’s former
her allegation of being at- Elle magazine column and
tacked in a luxury depart- even if they’d seen Trump’s
ment store dressing room. former reality show “The
The former president says Apprentice” and wheth-
nothing happened be- er any of these and other
tween them. matters would make it dif-
E. Jean Carroll will testify ficult for them to be fair.
that the assault that hap- Carroll is expected to testify
pened in a few minutes in a that a chance encounter
fitting room in 1996 “would with Trump turned violent,
change her life forever,” and that he defamed her
one of her lawyers, Shawn when responding to the
Crowley, said in an open- rape allegations. She’s
ing statement. Former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll walks into Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, April 25, seeking unspecified dam-
“Filled with fear and shame, 2023, in New York. ages and a retraction.
she kept silent for decades. Associated Press She says that after she ran
Eventually, though, silence six-man, three-woman jury. The trial is in civil court, Jurors whose names are into the future president
became impossible,” The trial stands to tests meaning that no matter being kept secret to pre- at Manhattan’s Bergdorf
Crowley said. And when Trump’s “Teflon Don” repu- the outcome, Trump isn’t in vent potential harassment Goodman on a spring eve-
Carroll broke that silence tation for shaking off serious danger of going to jail. He range in age from 26 to ning in 1996, he invited her
in a 2019 memoir, the then- legal problems and to re- isn’t required to be in court, 66 and include a janitor, to shop with him for a wom-
president “used the most prise accounts of the type either, and his lawyers have a physical therapist and an’s lingerie gift before
powerful platform on Earth of sexual misconduct that indicated he most likely people who work in secu- they teased one another
to lie about what he had rocked his 2016 presidential won’t testify. rity, health care collections, to try on a garment. Carroll
done, attack Ms. Carroll’s campaign as he seeks of- The trial comes a month af- a library, a high school and says they ended up alone
integrity and insult her ap- fice again. He denies Car- ter he pleaded not guilty in other settings. together in a store dressing
pearance.” roll’s claim and all the oth- an unrelated criminal case One said she follows news room, where Trump pushed
Trump wasn’t in court, and ers, saying they were false- surrounding payments by watching “everything”; her against a wall and
his lawyers haven’t yet pre- hoods spun up to damage made to bury accounts of another said he didn’t fol- raped before she fought
viewed their case for the him. alleged extramarital sex. low it at all. him off and fled.q

Alabama and Mississippi mark Confederate Memorial Day

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) ish state holidays that hon- Confederate-related holi- concept. It’s really hypo- moved it to Columbus
— Alabama and Mississippi or the old Confederacy. days, but the effort has so critical, quite tone deaf,” Day in October. “Whoever
closed most government Legislation has been intro- far gained little traction. Bennett said. wants to honor either man
offices Monday for Con- duced in the ongoing Ala- Camille Bennett, the found- An Alabama Senate com- will have their own day,”
federate Memorial Day as bama legislative session to er of Project Say Something, mittee last week rejected she said.
efforts have stalled to abol- remove, alter or rename an organization that has a proposal to separate the The vote split along racial
worked for the removal of joint state holiday celebrat- lines, Figures said at the
Confederate monuments ing Confederate Gen. end of the meeting, with
in Alabama, said the de- Robert E. Lee and slain civil white Republicans voting
termination to keep Con- rights leader the Rev. Mar- against it and Black Demo-
federate holidays comes tin Luther King Jr. on the crats voting for it.
at the same time Alabama same day. Several Southern states
lawmakers push legislation “We’re trying to separate have ended or renamed
banning so called “ divi- the holidays of two men Confederate holidays. Loui-
sive concepts” from being whose ideologies were to- siana in 2022 removed Rob-
taught in state classrooms tally separate, from one ert E. Lee Day and Confed-
and diversity training for end of the totem pole to erate Memorial Day from
state workers. the other. the list of state holidays.
“On one side, you have One believed in justice and Georgia in 2015 renamed
white conservative men fairness for all, and another Confederate Memorial
defining what divisive is believed in slavery,” state Day to “State Holiday.” Ar-
and what it means. ... At Sen. Vivian Davis Figures kansas in 2017 ended the
The Mississippi state and U.S. flags fly near the Rankin County the same time, you are said. practice of commemorat-
Confederate Monument in the downtown square of Brandon,
Miss., on March 3, 2023. honoring the Confederacy, Figures’ bill would have ing Lee and King on the
Associated Press which in itself is a divisive kept Lee’s holiday but same day.q