Ex-President Donald Trump set to face jury over sex abuse and defamation claims

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

48% : The notorious 2005 "Access Hollywood" video in which Trump was caught on a hot mic speaking disparagingly about women over a decade before he became president can be shown to jurors deciding what he owes E. Jean Carroll, a columnist he defamed, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, as he set up ground rules for a trial next week.
43% : Regardless of his losses in court, Trump leads all Republicans in presidential primary polls and plans to spend plenty of time in court fighting the civil cases and four criminal cases against him, saying, "In a way, I guess you consider it part of the campaign."
42% : Trump, 77, is appealing the findings of last year's jury and has continued to maintain that he doesn't know Carroll, that he never met her at the Bergdorf Goodman store in midtown Manhattan in spring 1996 and that Carroll made up her claims to sell her book and for political reasons.
36% : Trump is expected at the trial Tuesday, though his plans for the rest of the week have become unclear since his mother-in-law's funeral was scheduled for Thursday.
35% : One issue that wasn't decided in that first trial was how much Trump owed for comments he made about Carroll while he was still president.
30% : That has left Trump free to continue posting on social media about all of the above topics -- something he has done repeatedly in recent days -- although each fresh denial comes with the possibility of increasing damages he must pay.
27% : Kaplan rejected Trump's request to delay the trial a week, although he said he would let Trump testify as late as Monday even if the trial is otherwise ready for closing arguments by Thursday.
24% : The jury said Carroll hadn't proven that Trump raped her.
24% : Kaplan also banned them from saying anything about Carroll's "past romantic relationships, sexual disposition, and prior sexual experiences," from suggesting Trump didn't sexually abuse Carroll or from implying she was motivated by "a political agenda, financial interests, mental illness, or otherwise.
23% : In May, a different jury awarded Carroll $5 million after concluding that Trump sexually abused her in a department store dressing room in spring 1996, then defamed her in 2022 by claiming she made it up after she revealed it publicly in a 2019 memoir.
7% : Because the trial is supposed to be focused only on how much Trump owes Carroll, the judge has warned Trump and his lawyers that they cannot say things to jurors that he has said on the campaign trail or elsewhere, like claiming she lied about him to promote her memoir.

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