Tuesday was not good for Donald Trump. While traditional media outlets tried their hardest to pump up Trump’s showing in Monday’s Iowa caucus, it wasn’t exactly the kind of landslide victory you’d expect for a de facto incumbent president.
Tuesday was also the first day of Trump’s second defamation trial brought against him by E. Jean Carroll. Carroll was awarded a $5 million judgment last year after a jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting her. Carroll is seeking $10 million in this case for comments Trump made about her in 2019.
Tuesday’s trial opened with an ornery Trump watching jury selection. Team Trump took a hit when “juror number 68” was dismissed from the proceedings. According to Business Insider, the juror said he had attended a Trump rally and believed the 2020 election was stolen. He had already been questioned and was sitting in the audience when the judge asked other potential jurors if they thought Trump had been treated unfairly. When juror number 68 stood up and responded, he was officially rejected.
Trump and Carroll have not been in the same room for decades, according to reports, and while the two sat in court, Trump’s Truth Social account was publishing attacks on her. This included a clip from a video of Carroll on CNN, with the words, “Can you believe I have to defend myself against this woman’s fake story?!”
Trump also shared tweets from Carroll in 2010 and 2014, in which she discussed sex in a humorous way.
Trump’s terrible Tuesday came on top of the very bad news that Joseph Tacopina, one of Trump’s lawyers, withdrew from the disgraced former president’s legal team. Add to this Sunday’s ruling by Judge Lewis Kaplan denying Trump’s attempt to stall the beginning of the trial so that Trump could attend his mother-in-law’s funeral.
Trump is likely to continue collecting victories in the Republican primary, but the baggage he carries isn’t going anywhere—nor is his busy schedule of court dates.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify when juror number 68 was rejected from the jury pool.
