E. Jean Carroll testified in sometimes searing detail about the day she says Donald Trump raped her in a department store dressing room two decades before he became president, allegations the Republican has repeatedly and vehemently denied.

Taking the witness stand in support of Carroll this week, two friends told jurors that they spoke with the former magazine columnist shortly after the alleged 1996 attack, and that they believe she is telling the truth. Other women testified about separate encounters; one said Trump grabbed and groped her while they were on a flight in the late 1970s, the other told jurors he forcibly kissed her at his Florida home in 2005.

The accounts, shared during the civil trial on Carroll’s claims of battery and defamation against Trump, mark the first time that any of the numerous allegations of sexual misconduct against the former president have been heard in a court trial. Given a chance to rebut Carroll’s accusations on the witness stand, Trump declined to make an appearance, instead traveling overseas. He told reporters in Ireland that he may still testify in person, though his attorney said in court that he will not and that they will not present other witnesses.

For most politicians, the allegations laid out in a New York courtroom would be enough to torpedo any future aspirations. But Trump isn’t the average politician, a fact that became clear when he won the 2016 presidential contest a month after the release of an “Access Hollywood” tape in which he boasted about sexually assaulting women and said that as a star, “you can do anything.”

Now, as Trump campaigns for a 2024 presidential bid, the Carroll case provides another test of Trump’s ability to survive scandals that would sink others. Some political observers say the public already has hardened opinions of the former president — love him or hate him — and that claims about him abusing women aren’t new.