“Huge monetary award”: Legal experts warn jury may hit Trump hard to …

Former President Donald Trump is facing trial again in New York this week to determine additional damages for defaming former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll in 2019 when he denied her sexual assault allegations. 

A federal jury will begin deciding how much the former president owes the writer. It’s the second trial to be held in a pair of cases against Trump brought by Carroll.

In a prior civil lawsuit, Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room nearly 30 years ago and defaming her. Last year, a jury ruled in favor of Carroll, finding Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, and awarded her $5 million in damages.

“The jury has the power to impose substantial punitive damages on Trump for raping Ms. Carroll, then branding her accusation as made-up and then repeatedly castigating her in public and social posts as crazy and ‘whacky,’” Bennett Gershman, a former New York…