Donald Trump in court for second defamation trial after Iowa victory

Fresh off winning the first U.S. presidential nominating contest in Iowa, Donald Trump sat in federal court in New York on Tuesday to defend himself for a second time against charges that he defamed writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of raping her decades ago.

As court proceedings began, Trump was seated two tables behind Carroll. She is accusing Trump of defaming her in 2019 by denying he had attacked her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan. Carroll, 80, is seeking at least $10 million in damages.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Tuesday. Trump, 77, has said he wants to testify at the civil trial and could spend much of this year shuttling between campaign rallies and courtrooms, as he seeks to win the Republican presidential nomination for 2024.

He won the first state contest in Iowa on Monday by a wide margin, and opinion polls show him leading in the next contest in New Hampshire a week from today.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in four criminal cases that could potentially land him in prison before the November presidential election, including two that accuse him of trying to overturn his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden. He also is a defendant in at least two other civil cases.

Trump has cast himself as the victim of political persecution. On Tuesday, he said U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan should dismiss the case. "Judge Kaplan should put this whole corrupt, Crooked Joe Biden-directed Election Interference attack on me immediately to rest," he posted on social media. "He should do it for America."

SECOND TRIAL Trump has already lost one defamation case against Carroll.

A jury last May ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million for having sexually abused her during the encounter, and defaming her in 2022 by denying that it happened. Trump skipped that trial. In this trial, the jury must determine how much more Trump owes the former Elle magazine columnist for his 2019 comments.

Kaplan, who has overseen both cases, has barred Trump from arguing that he did not defame or sexually assault Carroll or that she made up her account. In both cases, Trump, 77, claimed that he did not know Carroll and that she invented their encounter to sell her memoir.

Trump is appealing the $5 million award, and could appeal any award at the second trial. Appeals could take years. NEW ATTACKS

In recent weeks, Trump has escalated his attacks on Carroll, including a false accusation this weekend on his Truth Social website that she did not know the decade of their encounter. He also branded Kaplan, an appointee of former Democratic President Bill Clinton who has spent 29 years on the bench, a "terrible, biased, irrationally angry Clinton-appointed judge."

Trump's legal woes have become part of his campaign for the Republican nomination to challenge Biden in November's election. Trump in court appearances last week in Washington and New York attacked the judicial system and said cases against him are meant to undermine his quest for a second White House term.

None of the cases has so far dented Trump's lead for the Republican nomination. LIMITS ON TRUMP'S DEFENSE

Trump may face an uphill fight to escape significant additional damages because of Kaplan's pre-trial rulings. These include banning Trump from suggesting he did not rape Carroll, as New York's penal law defines the term, because the first jury did not find that Trump committed rape.

Kaplan has ruled that because Trump used his fingers in the assault, Carroll's rape claim was "substantially true." Trump also cannot discuss DNA evidence or Carroll's sexual activities, or suggest that Democrats are bankrolling her case. Carroll is a Democrat.

And as at the first trial, jurors will be able to see the 2005 "Access Hollywood" video where Trump graphically described the ability of famous people like himself to have sexual relations with beautiful women. Trump did not retract his comments when asked about them in a 2022 deposition. Kaplan has said that the video could offer "useful insight into Mr. Trump's state of mind" toward Carroll.

Trump lawyer Alina Habba on Sunday assured Kaplan that he was "well aware" of the court's rulings "and the strict confines placed on his testimony."