Former President, Donald Trump. [Source: Reuters]

The judge in former President Donald Trump’s rape case ordered lawyers at the start of a civil trial to keep their clients and witnesses from making public statements that could lead to violence.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan admonished them before seating nine jurors who will weigh whether Trump raped former Elle magazine advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s – and defamed her by denying it happened.

Opening statements were scheduled to begin later on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court. The trial is expected to last one to two weeks.

Trump has long inspired strong feelings from supporters and opponents across the political spectrum.

Before juror questioning began, Kaplan ordered Trump’s and Carroll’s lawyers to tell their clients and witnesses not to make statements that could “incite violence or civil unrest.”

Trump, 76, called Carroll’s rape claim a “hoax” and “complete Scam” in an October 2022 post on his Truth Social platform. He also said she made up the encounter to promote her memoir and declared that she was “not my type!”

Carroll, 79, is seeking unspecified damages for what she calls significant pain and suffering, lasting psychological harm, and invasion of privacy.

She invoked a new state law in New York giving adult sexual abuse victims a one-year window to sue their alleged attackers, even if statutes of limitations have long since expired.

Carroll’s case is among a slew of lawsuits and probes facing Trump, the Republican front-runner in the 2024 presidential race. It could be politically damaging as witnesses discuss Trump’s alleged sexual misconduct, all of which he denies.

The trial began the same day President Joe Biden, a Democrat, said he would seek a second White House term.

Trump was not in the courthouse and was not required to attend the trial. He was also unlikely to testify, according to lawyers from both sides.

Kaplan is keeping jurors anonymous from the public and the lawyers, to shield them from potential harassment by Trump supporters.

He even suggested that jurors not use their real names when speaking with one another.

The judge dismissed several prospective jurors who said they could not judge the case fairly.

He asked many questions to gauge bias.

These included whether prospective jurors agreed with Trump that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, or thought the #MeToo movement – which Carroll has said inspired her to come forward – would undercut their impartiality. None said they did.

The former president has repeatedly attacked Carroll in personal terms, once calling her mentally ill, since she first publicly accused him of rape in June 2019.