E Jean Carroll is taking on Donald Trump in court over alleged 1990s rape in department store

The civil rape trial against former President Donald Trump filed by a once-prominent columnist began on Tuesday in a New York court room nearly 30 years after the alleged assault and four years since the writer went public with her story. 

DailyMail.com is here to break down all your questions as E. Jean Carroll, 79, takes on the presidential hopeful over claims that he raped her in a luxury department store dressing room in the late 1990s.

Trump has repeatedly denied the claims, insisting that Carroll only brought forth the allegations to boost the sale of her 2019 memoir What Do We Need Men For?

It remains unclear whether the presidential hopeful will testify in the case, which is expected to last at least a week, with the jury sworn in on Tuesday.

E Jean Carroll, 79, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, has said that she kept quiet about her experience for decades but spoke out after Trump, 76, became president

The panel of six men and three women will decide whether the former president sexually assaulted journalist E. Jean Carroll at a Manhattan Department store in the mid 1990s.  E. Jean Carroll and Judge Kaplan are seen in a court sketch 

Who is E. Jean Carroll?

Elizabeth Jean "Jeannie" Carroll had long been a luminary in the New York literary scene.

She was born in Detroit, and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where she began pitching story ideas to magazines at the age of 12.

After graduating from Indiana University, Carroll got her first big break when she published an article in Esquire, which she later described as a 'witty literary quiz' she concocted about Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

From there, she has said, writing assignments started to 'trickle in,' and in 1983 she was sent to New York City to interview Fran Leibowitz for a cover article in Outside Magazine.

Enamored by the city, Carroll then decided to leave her then-husband, Steve Byers, and move to the Big Apple. 

'I had jeans, cowgirl boots, a fringe jacket, a couple of shirts,' she told USA Today. 'And that's it.' 

She began to write first-person articles for Playboy and New York magazines, and was even hired as a writer for Saturday Night Live — for which she earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program in 1987.

But she was best known for her advice column Ask E. Jean, which ran in Elle from 1993 to 2019.

A common theme of the advice column was that women should 'never' structure their lives around men. 

Carroll was a prominent advice columnist for Elle Magazine before she was fired in 2019

She claimed in a memoir that year that the then-president raped her in the mid-1990s

What does she allege happened? 

At the height of her fame in the mid-1990s, Carroll claimed in her memoir, she met Trump at the Fifth Avenue department store Bergdorf Goodman.

She described in the 2019 book how Trump asked her for help in selecting a gift for 'a girl,' and he offered to buy her lingerie.

But, she said, the 'playful banter took a dark turn' when he followed her into the changing room and raped her.

According to her complaint, 'Trump lunged at Carroll, pushing her against the wall, bumping her head quite badly, and putting his mouth on her lips.

'Carroll shoved him back. Utterly shocked by Trump's unexpected attack, Carroll burst out in awkward laughter. She could hardly process the insanity of the situation. She also hoped, at least at first, that laughter would bruise his ego and cause him to retreat.'

Instead he allegedly 'seized both of her arms' and pinned her against the wall as he pulled down her tights and allegedly forced himself upon her.

An investigation by the New York Times later corroborated her version of events, with some sources close to the columnist describing how she told them of the rape after it happened. 

The case brought by Carroll was filed under a New York state law opening a one-year window for adult victims of sexual assault to file civil cases after the statute of limitations has expired. 

Donald Trump in 1987 with his first wife, Ivana, rape accuser E. Jean Carroll and Carroll's then-husband

Trump would have been married to Marla Maples at the time of the alleged rape. Maples had given birth to daughter Tiffany in 1993 (above)

Why else is she suing Trump?

Carroll filed a separate defamation lawsuit against Trump over statements he made about the case while he was still president. 

His social media posts include calling the case a 'complete con job' and 'totally false'.

In one post he said: 'While I am not supposed to say it, I will. This woman is not my type.'

She believes the fallout from her allegations — which were only publicized for the first time in her memoir  — led Elle to fire her in December 2019.  

She said in a tweet she was fired 'because Trump ridiculed my reputation, laughed at my looks and dragged me through the mud.

'I don't blame Elle,' she continued. 'It was the great honor of my life writing Ask E. Jean. I blame Donald Trump.'

The magazine has denied that the early termination of her contract had anything to do with the allegations. 

In a separate suit, Carroll is accusing Trump of defamation for the comments he made after she came forward with her allegations

How has Trump responded? 

Trump called his rape accuser E. Jean Carroll 'mentally sick' and a 'nut job,' in an unsealed deposition. 

According to the transcript, Trump said under oath: 'She said that I did something to her that never took place. There was no anything. I know nothing about this nut job.'

In another section, the 2024 presidential candidate said: 'I know nothing about her. I think she's sick, mentally sick.' Trump reiterated his claim that Carroll was 'not his type.'

The deposition took place in October 2022.