Donald Trump didn't show up in the first case brought against him by E. Jean Carroll, and he was ultimately found liable for sexually assaulting and defaming the magazine writer.
MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin flagged a court filing on Wednesday, which suggested Trump could call himself and numerous others. She explained that, with the New York attorney general's civil fraud trial against Trump others "expected to end sometime next month, E. Jean Carroll's lawyers are getting ready for her second trial against the former president that opens on Jan. 16, 2024, the day after the Iowa caucuses."
"That trial -- a damages-only proceeding concerning Trump's June 2019 statements about Carroll -- will take as a given that Trump sexually assaulted Carroll and defamed her. What's left for the jury will be the size of the damages they award to both compensate her and punish him," she reported.
Rubin noted that, "in order to convince the jury of Carroll's injuries (and Trump's malice), her lawyers will put on a handful of witnesses: Carroll herself; Natasha Stoynoff and Jessica Leeds, both of whom allege Trump assaulted them, decades apart." She added that others include Carroll's ex-boss "and then-Elle editor in chief Robbie Myers; and finally, her damages expert, Professor Ashlee Humphreys; all of whom also testified at the first Carroll trial."
Rubin said we know all of this because "Judge Lew Kaplan, who also oversaw the first Carroll trial, today signed a pretrial order that lays out each side's statement of the case, their exhibits, and their witnesses."
She then continued:
"And despite never showing up for a day, much less an hour, of Carroll's prior trial, guess who appears on the list of witnesses Trump may call? Trump himself--but no rebuttal expert because he waited too long to attempt to substitute in a new one."
