The civil case between former US President Donald Trump and magazine columnist E Jean Carroll will see the jury retire to consider its decision this week – but not before a couple of questions are settled. Trump hasn’t testified yet, and he has until early this morning (our time) to decide if he will. After that, both sides will deliver their closing arguments on Monday local time and then it’s over to the jury…  It’s a battery and defamation case – Carroll says Trump assaulted her in a department store change room in the mid-1990s and then defamed her when he denied her claim by calling her a “whack job” and “mentally sick”. Last week, Trump told reporters in Ireland that he would “probably attend” the trial because Carroll had “made a false accusation about me, and I have a judge who is extremely hostile.” Despite all that, a new poll shows Trump leading incumbent Joe Biden as next year’s presidential race gets out of the starting blocks.