A trial has opened in a civil claim brought against Donald Trump over an alleged rape nearly 30 years ago.
Former advice columnist E Jean Carroll has accused Mr Trump of attacking her in the luxury department Bergdorf Goodman store around 1996, which the former US president denies.
She alleges that she went with Mr Trump, 76, to the store's lingerie department where he manoeuvred her into a dressing room and raped her.
Ms Carroll will testify that what happened in the store’s fitting room went on to “change her life forever,” said her lawyer Shawn Crowley.
“Filled with fear and shame, she kept silent for decades. Eventually, though, silence became impossible," he said.
The writer first publicly aired her claim in a 2019 memoir, which caused the then-president to use “the most powerful platform on Earth to lie about what he had done, attack Ms. Carroll's integrity and insult her appearance,” said her lawyer.
Trump, who wasn't in court but who could testify, has accused Ms Carroll of fabricating the rape claim to sell her book.
Defence attorney Joe Tacopina told jurors Tuesday that her story was wildly implausible and short of evidence.
“It all comes down to: Do you believe the unbelievable?" he asked in his opening statement.
The case could cause difficulty for Mr Trump as he seeks to win the US presidency in 2024. His 2016 bid was also dogged by accounts of sexual misconduct, which he denied.
As the suit is a civil case, Mr Trump is not in danger of going to jail even if he loses.
His accuser is seeking unspecified monetary damages and a retraction of statements that she alleges were defamatory.
Among them is his comment that, “She’s not my type,” which her lawyers say was tantamount to calling her too unattractive to assault.
The trial comes a month after Mr Trump pleaded not guilty in an unrelated criminal case surrounding payments made to bury accounts of alleged extramarital sex.
It made him the first-ever former US president to face criminal charges.
