NY jury will have wide latitude to decide civil Trump claims

By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — The jury hearing a columnist’s claims that she was raped by Donald Trump in the 1990s is likely to have wide latitude in deciding the merits of the civil allegations against the former president when it begins deliberations as early as Tuesday. Federal Judge Lewis A. Kaplan instructed them earlier in the trial that the central claim brought by columnist E. Jean Carroll pertains to “battery.” He said that in a civil case, battery can result from even the slightest unlawful touching of another person. Trump has said he never raped Carroll and was never with her at the store where she says the rape occurred.