E Jean Carroll has accused the ex-president of rape and defamation, but his lawyers say the allegations are an “affront to justice”.

After a seven-day civil trial, a New York jury is scheduled to return a verdict in the rape and defamation lawsuit against former US President Donald Trump.

“I know that you will perform your duty under your oath to render a fair and truthful judgment,” US District Judge Lewis Kaplan told the jury of six men and three women Tuesday as they began their deliberations.

Writer E Jean Carroll has accused Trump, who is seeking the White House again in 2024 and has denied the allegations against him, of sexually assaulting her in a New York City department store in the mid-1990s.

She also claims the former president defamed her by dismissing her story – told in a 2019 memoir – as a “con job”.

Carroll is seeking unspecified damages from Trump, who is also facing a slew of other legal issues, including criminal charges in New York related to a 2016 hush money payment to a porn star.

Here are some key moments from the process:

Anonymous jury

Kaplan, the judge, took the unusual step of keeping the jury anonymous to both the public and attorneys to protect them from possible harassment from Trump supporters.

“If you’re normally a Bill and you get selected for the jury, or even before that, you can be John for a few days,” Kaplan told prospective jurors.

Judge warns Trump team against online posts

On day two of the trial, Kaplan warned Trump’s legal team that his posts about the case on his Truth Social platform the previous day could open him up to “a new source of potential liability.”

Carroll’s attorneys had flagged two posts in which Trump called the case a “fabricated fraud” funded “by a major political donor.”

“He raped me,” says Carroll

Faced with repeated questions from Trump’s lawyer as to why she didn’t scream during the alleged attack, Carroll lost patience and raised her voice.

“I’ll tell you: He raped me whether I screamed or not,” she said.

Trump waives the right to testify

Trump waived his testimony, but jurors saw footage of his October 2022 video testimony defending vulgar comments he made in a 2005 video.

Trump was asked about the 2005 Access Hollywood interview in which he made salacious comments, saying that as a celebrity he could grab women’s genitals without asking.

“Historically, that’s right, with stars … if you look at the last million years,” Trump said, hunched over a conference table, in the testimony played during the trial.

Carroll’s lawyer accuses Trump of “patterns of behavior”.

During Monday’s closing arguments, Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan — who is not related to Judge Kaplan — said testimonies from two other women alleging Trump sexually assaulted them had identified a pattern of wrongdoing. Trump has also denied these allegations.

“Three different women, decades apart, but a single pattern of behavior,” the attorney said, arguing that Trump’s defense asked the jury to give credence to the “ridiculous” claim that the other witnesses were conspiring to lie.

Trump attorney calls case an ‘affront to justice’

Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, claimed during his closing arguments that Carroll’s lawsuit was a money robbery, a publicity stunt and a political mission rolled into one.

“What E Jean Carroll has done here is an affront to justice. She has abused this system by making false claims for money, status, and political reasons, among other things,” Tacopina said.