A federal jury in New York found former President Donald Trump guilty of sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll in a department store in Manhattan in the 1990s. The former president was also found liable for defaming the writer last fall when he accused Carroll of making up that account.
The jury, made up of 6 men and 3 women, which did not find that Trump had raped Carroll, ordered him to pay her $5 million in compensation
But their verdict that he sexually abused and forcibly touched her without her consent during a chance encounter in the Bergdorf Goodman store substantiated her civil claim of battery.
“I filed this lawsuit against Donald Trump to clear my name and to get my life back,” Carroll, 79, said.
“Today, the world finally knows the truth,” said Carroll, a former “Elle” magazine advice columnist and biographer of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.
“This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed.”
Her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, in her own statement, said, “No one is above the law, not even a former President of the United States.”
“For far too long, survivors of sexual assault faced a wall of doubt and intimidation,” Kaplan added. We hope and believe today’s verdict will be an important step in tearing that wall down.”
Trump, who neither testified at trial nor ever appeared in court, blasted the verdict in a post on Truth Social, his social media site. “I have absolutely no idea who this woman is,” the 76-year-old Trump wrote. “This verdict is a disgrace.”
His lawyer Joseph Tacopina told the press, “Her claim was that she was raped and the jury rejected it. Perplexing to say the least.”
“Obviously we will be appealing,” said Tacopina.
“We expect it to happen again,” the attorney said.
The other lawsuit alleges Trump defamed Carroll when she went public with her claim of rape in a 2019 New York magazine article.
But Carroll sued him with a civil claim of battery under a New York state law enacted in late 2022 that opened a one-year window for lawsuits alleging sexual assaults which otherwise would be barred by the statute of limitations.
The victim also claimed that Trump defamed her last fall when he said she had made up her account of being raped.
Trump at the time called her allegations “a complete con job,” and said that she was not his “type.”
That deposition included Trump being asked about his comments in 2005 during a taping for the entertainment television show “Access Hollywood,” in which he boasted: “I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women — I just start kissing them, it’s like a magnet.”
“Just kiss. I don’t even wait,” Trump said on that tape.
“And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,” he said, including “grab ’em by the p—-.”
Trump told Carroll’s lawyer during the deposition that those comments were “locker room talk.”
“If you look over the last million years, I guess that’s been largely true,” Trump testified at the time.
“Not always, but largely true. Unfortunately or fortunately.”
When Carroll took the witness stand two weeks ago she testified, “I’m here because Trump raped me.”
She testified that when they ended up in the store’s lingerie department, he ushered her into a dressing room, where he shoved her against a wall and sexually assaulted her.
A spokesman for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign said after the verdict, “The Democratic Party’s never-ending witch-hunt of President Trump hit a new low today.”
“In jurisdictions wholly controlled by the Democratic Party our nation’s justice system is now compromised by extremist left-wing politics,” the spokesman said in a statement.
“Make no mistake, this entire bogus case is a political endeavour targeting President Trump because he is now an overwhelming front-runner to be once again elected President of the United States.”
Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, told reporters at the U.S. Capitol that while the jury verdict does not necessarily have any effect on Trump’s candidacy, “The fact is, I do not think he could win the presidency.”
“He’s got a solid supportive base, but you can’t win a general election with just your base,” Cornyn said, according to sources. “So you have to appeal to a broader spectrum of people and he just never seems to try to do that. So to me, that’s the reason why I don’t think he can get elected.”
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