The many legal hazards piling up against former President Trump have a way of blurring together at the moment. But writer E. Jean Carroll’s civil lawsuit for

assault and slander, which began in New York on Tuesday, is about to dramatically stand out from the pack.

That’s because the law, the evidence, and the personalities involved predict a lopsided and relatively short trial that will vividly portray Trump as a liar, bully, and sexual predator.

And we can probably add cowardice to that, as Trump decided not to even show up on Tuesday to face Carroll’s serious accusations. It’s a calculation likely to incite resentment and contempt from the jury.

Not that the jurors, who were selected on Tuesday, need additional reasons to hold Trump accountable. Carroll’s evidence will likely be more than enough, especially given Trump’s poor defense.

We can expect the case to feature Trump’s own words in his deposition and elsewhere, all of which are admissible under the rules of evidence. That could be gems like Trumps calling Carroll a whacker he’d never met and mistaking the writer for his ex-wife Marla Maples when he was shown a photo of her.

The dramatic centerpiece will be Carroll’s own account of the violent three minutes in which she says Trump raped her in a department store locker room. Two witnesses who heard her harrowing story shortly afterwards are expected to do so

refute refutation

Trump’s public accusation that Carroll is making it all up.

Things get even worse for the former president. Under a provision of the federal code of evidence known as Rule 415, the court may admit evidence that the defendant committed another sexual assault. It’s a rule specific to sexual assault lawsuits; Evidence of past crimes is usually not readily accepted in court. And while a jury is not supposed to rely on such evidence to conclude that if he did it before, he must have done it this time, it’s a conclusion that’s hard to avoid.

Under 415, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan has ruled that Carroll’s team may testify to two other alleged Trump victims, Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, who say Trump attacked them on a plane and at Mar-a-Lago, respectively . The jury is also expected to hear the infamous Access Hollywood tape on which Trump bragged about grabbing women’s genitals.

There will be a few other witnesses, but this probably won’t be a long trial. Carroll’s case will likely take about a week to present.

How will Trump answer this damning evidence? He gave the court and Carroll a list of exactly two witnesses, an expert to refute one of Carroll’s witnesses and himself.

For reasons I described earlier, Trump is highly unlikely to take the position. Carroll’s formidable attorney, Roberta Kaplan, would have a field day to expose him as an inveterate liar and extremely unreliable witness. The asymmetric evidence rules prohibit Trump from using his statement or his other extrajudicial statements in his own defense; he can only bear witness to that.

Trump’s defense has other problems. His attorney, Joe Tacopina, is a brutal fighter and a poor choice given the allegations. In addition, Tacopina has already drawn the ire of the no-nonsense judge with stunts to circumvent the rules, including a recent motion for clarification on Stoynoff’s expected testimony. Carroll’s attorney, on the other hand, has an impressive courtroom presence and special expertise in representing victims of sexual assault.

And because this is a civil trial, Carroll’s charges only need to be proven by a preponderance of the evidence, not the stricter criminal standard of beyond a reasonable doubt.

The past few months have made the once-Teflon Trump look vulnerable again on many fronts. I expect the Carroll case to move quickly from accusations against Trump to trial, a milestone on his long road to accountability.

Harry Litman is the host of the

Talking Feds podcast

.

@harrylitman