Trump lawyers set to attack writer's assault claim at civil trial

Donald Trump's legal team is expected to attack the credibility of former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll on Thursday, as a civil trial resumes over her claim that the former US president raped her and lied about it.

Under questioning from her lawyers on Wednesday, Carroll testified in graphic detail about how Trump allegedly assaulted her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.

Trump has consistently denied the allegations and claimed that Carroll made them up to sell books and hurt him politically.

Carroll told jurors in Manhattan federal court that Trump's subsequent denials shredded her credibility and ruined her career, costing her most of a readership she spent decades building.

Lawyers for Carroll are expected to resume their questioning on Thursday, and Trump's team will then get to cross-examine her.

Carroll is seeking unspecified damages from Trump who leads the Republican field in the 2024 presidential campaign. The lawsuit concerns an alleged rape in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in late 1995 or early 1996, where Carroll said Trump coaxed her before slamming her into a wall and raping her.

Carroll says Trump later defamed her by calling her rape claim a hoax, saying that she was not his “type” and accusing her of making up the story to sell her memoir.

Trump is not attending the trial and is not required to.

• Donald Trump goes on trial, accused of rape