Writer E Jean Carroll has sued Donald Trump in the US state of New York for allegedly raping her in the 1990s. Ms Carroll alleges the attack took place in a New York luxury department store dressing room 27 years ago.
Ms Carroll is among the first to sue under the Adult Survivors Act, which came into effect on Thursday. The state law allows a one-year period for victims to file sexual assault lawsuits in New York over claims that would have otherwise exceeded statute limitations.
The former president has denied the allegations against him.
The Adult Survivors Act allows victims to come forward if the sexual assault occurred when they were over the age of 18 and took place on a date that exceeds time limits that exists on most felonies.
It is modelled after the stateās recent Child Abuse Act, which applied to victims who were abused as minors.
The Child Abuse Act, which came into effect in 2019, allowed a two-year period for victims to come forward. Around 11,000 lawsuits were filed in New York against churches, hospitals, schools, camps and other institutions under that law.
Ms Carroll has also sued former President Trump for defamation after he accused her of lying when she first made her allegations public in 2019. Mr Trump has called Ms Carrollās claims āfictionā. A civil trial for that case is scheduled for 6 February.
In a statement, Ms Carrollās attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said the new lawsuit filed on Thursday is intended to hold Mr Trump accountable for the alleged assault.
Jury selection is due to begin on Tuesday in a New York federal court.
Mr Trump has denied E Jean Carrollās accusation that he attacked her in a Manhattan department store. He has said she made up the claim for publicity.
If Ms Carroll wins the lawsuit, it would be the first time the former president - who has been the subject of more than two dozen such allegations - would be found legally responsible for a sexual assault.
Ms Carroll, 79, says the attack occurred at a Bergdorf Goodman store in Manhattan in late 1995 or early 1996. The pair had bumped into each other while shopping, she said. Mr Trump then allegedly asked her for advice when buying lingerie for another woman and jokingly asked her to model it for him. But once in the changing rooms, Ms Carroll said the real estate tycoon lunged at her, pinned her against a wall and assaulted her.
Mr Trump has issued multiple denials in the years since Ms Carroll came forward with her allegations in 2019. He has described her claims as a ācomplete con jobā on his social media platform Truth Social, saying the alleged rape ānever happenedā. And during an October deposition for the case, Mr Trump repeated his denials, adding that his accuser is ānot my typeā.
It is so far unclear if Mr Trump will make an appearance during the trial, which is expected to last up to two weeks. He is not required to attend and Ms Carrollās lawyers have said they do not plan to call him as a witness.
Lawyers for the accuser plan to play to jurors a recording, known as the Access Hollywood tape, in which Mr Trump is heard boasting about grabbing womenās genitals. Lawyers for Ms Carroll also plan to call other women who say they were attacked by Mr Trump to testify at the trial.
No doubt, there will be some very expensive lawyers sparring in the courtroom.
The judge in the case, Lewis A Kaplan, rebuked Trump for an āentirely inappropriateā statement on his social media platform, Truth Social, shortly before proceedings began.
Trump, who has not attended so far, called the case āa made-up scamā. He also called Carrollās lawyer āa political operativeā and alluded to a DNA issue Kaplan has ruled cannot be part of the case.
The judge told Trumpās lawyers: āWhat seems to be the case is that your client is basically endeavoring, certainly, to speak to his quote-unquote public, but, more troubling, the jury in this case about stuff that has no business being spoken about.ā
The Trump attorney Joe Tacopina noted that jurors are told not to follow any news or online commentary about the case. But he said he would ask Trump āto refrain from any further posts about this caseā.
āI hope youāre more successful,ā Kaplan said, adding that Trump āmay or may not be tampering with a new source of potential liabilityā.
Another charge on the list ā¦ 
Ms Carroll claims Mr Trump accosted her in a Manhattan department store in 1996.
He has consistently denied her accusations as āfictionā.
āIām here because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it, he lied and said it didnāt happen,ā Ms Carroll told a Manhattan federal court on Wednesday. āHe lied and shattered my reputation, and Iām here to try and get my life back.ā
Ms Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, testified that the encounter with Mr Trump initially began with flirtatious banter after he approached her at the Bergdorf Goodman store and asked if she would help him buy a gift for a friend.
She said the banter quickly took a turn when Mr Trump asked her to try on a piece of lingerie and followed her into a dressing room.
Once inside, she claimed, he closed the door, held her against the wall and raped her.
āAs Iām sitting here today I can still feel it,ā she told the court.
She tried to push Mr Trump off, saying it was clear she didnāt want it to happen, she said. The āextremely painfulā encounter was over within minutes, she said, and she quickly left the department store.
Trump mistakes rape accuser for his ex-wife then claims he intends to testify in the trial after his lawyer said he wouldnāt.
Interesting ā¦ 
The nine-member jury are due to begin deliberations on Tuesday morning in the civil rape and defamation trial against the former president after they receive instructions from US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is not related to lawyer Ms Kaplan.
Donald Trump has been found liable for battery and defamation, after a civil trial jury found he sexually abused writer E Jean Carroll in the 1990s.
The jury rejected the rape claim but awarded the former Elle magazine advice columnist $5m (Ā£4m) in damages.
The nine-person jury began discussing the battery and defamation lawsuit on Tuesday and deliberated for just under three hours.
Ms Carroll, 79, had claimed that the former US president raped her in a department store changing room in Manhattan in 1995 or 1996.
She said he defamed her by claiming she made up the story and was seeking compensation and punitive damages.
Trump, who did not attend the trial, has insisted he never sexually assaulted Ms Carroll or even knew her. He has called the verdict a ādisgraceā on his Truth Social platform.
Trump said: āI have absolutely no idea who this woman is. This verdict is a disgrace - a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time.ā
The former US president, campaigning to retake the White House in 2024, will appeal, his lawyer confirmed. He will not have to pay so long as the case is on appeal.
Trump brought to account for this incident of appalling behaviour ā¦ naturally, he will do all he can to avoid paying the award and accepting responsibility.
I donāt get it.She said he raped her but the jury said he didnāt.Why his he being charged for something else ? and why should anything she said be believed??
The standard of proof in civil cases is lower than in criminal cases, meaning that jurors were only required to find that it was more likely than not that Mr Trump assaulted Ms Carroll.
While the jury found Mr Trump liable for sexual battery and defamation of Ms Carroll, they did not find Mr Trump liable of raping her. To do so, the jury would have needed to have been convinced that Mr Trump had engaged in non-consensual sexual intercourse with Ms Carroll.
Ms Carrollās legal team called 11 witnesses to corroborate her claims that Mr Trump had assaulted her in the lingerie department of the luxury store in 1995 or 1996.
They included two women who also say they were sexually assaulted by Mr Trump decades ago. One woman told jurors that Mr Trump groped her during a flight in the 1970s. Another woman said that Mr Trump had forcibly kissed her while she was interviewing him for an article she was writing in 2005.
Two long-time friends of Ms Carroll testified that she told them about the encounter shortly after it occurred.
On the stand, Ms Carroll described in graphic detail what she alleges happened in the store and the trauma she says she has endured as a result.
Mr Trump called no witnesses and appeared only in a video of a deposition that was played for jurors in which he denied rape.
The civil rape and defamation trial has placed renewed attention on the former presidentās decades-long history of allegedly forcing himself on women at his homes in New York and Florida, at beauty pageants, on planes, at restaurants, bars and during random encounters.
To date, at least 26 women have accused Mr Trump of sexual misconduct or assault.
E Jean Carroll
Jessica Leeds
Natasha Stoynoff
Ivana Trump
Kristin Anderson
Jill Harth
Temple Taggart McDowell
Karena Virginia
Tasha Dixon
Bridget Sullivan
Cathy Heller
Mindy McGillivray
Ninni Laaksonen
Jessica Drake
Rachel Crooks
Samantha Holvey
Summer Zervos
Jennifer Murphy
Cassandra Searles
Amy Dorris
Alva Johnson
Lisa Boyne
Victoria Hughes
Mariah Billado
Karen Johnson
Juliet Huddy
Will more come forward now Trump has been branded by a court as a liar and sex pest, knowing that they will be believed this time?
Now thereās a surpriseā¦
I wonder how much they got?
What are you implying?
That itās a āTrumped up chargeāā¦And borne out of fiction. Somebody badly wants Trump outā¦
It doesnāt matter to me whether Trump stands for another term of Potus or not, but it certainly shows the amount of corruption there is in the political system of the USA.
Trump no longer a man heās a sexual abuser.
Ah, youāre employing the āTrump Tacticā - throwing wild unsubstantiated accusations at those who oppose or accuse him, in the belief that the gullible will always believe in the mud that sticks ā¦ 
Mr Fox Unless youāve knowledge that wasnāt available to the jurors I donāt see how you can substantiate your claims to Trumps innocence.
Hi
Trump has claimed the judge was biased
The judge did not find him guilty.
Trump was found guilty by the jury.
Was that an all women democrat jury?