Jury says Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll $5 million for sexual abuse and defamation

A
civil

jury
on
Tuesday
found
former
President

Donald
Trump
liable
for
sexually
abusing
the
writer

E.
Jean
Carroll
at
a

New
York
department
store
in
the
1990s,
and
for
defaming
her
last
fall
when
he
denied
her
claim.

The
jury
of
six
men
and
three
women
also
ordered

Trump
to
pay
Carroll
a
total
of
$5
million
in
compensatory
and
punitive
damages
after
deliberating
less
than
three
hours
in

U.S.
District
Court
in
Manhattan.

Jurors
notably
did
not
find
Trump
liable
for

rape,
the
most
serious
allegation
Carroll
made
in
a
lawsuit
filed
last
year.

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.
Trial
in
the
case
began
on
April
25.

“I
filed
this
lawsuit
against
Donald
Trump
to
clear
my
name
and
to
get
my
life
back,”
Carroll,
79,
said
in
a
statement
Tuesday.

“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
CNBC,
“Her
claim
was
that
she
was
raped
and
the
jury
rejected
it.
Perplexing
to
say
the
least.”

“Obviously
we
will
be
appealing,”
said
Tacopina.

He
noted
that
Judge
Lewis
Kaplan,
the
trial
judge
who
is
not
related
to
Roberta
Kaplan,
last
year
had
a
key
ruling
overturned
by
a
federal
appeals
court
in
another,
similar
pending
lawsuit
by
Carroll
against
Trump.

“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.

At
the
time,
Trump
was
president,
and
questions
about
whether
he
can
be
held
liable
for
defamatory
statements
while
serving
in
that
official
position
have
for
years
effectively
stalled
that
case.

The
trial’s
result
Tuesday
is
the
latest
—
but
possibly
not
the
last
—
legal
blow
against
Trump,
who
leads
early
polls
for
the
2024
GOP
nomination.

In
late
March
he
was
indicted
by
a
Manhattan
state
Supreme
Court
grand
jury
on
nearly
three
dozen
counts
of
falsifying
business
records
in
connection
with
a
2016
hush
money
payment
to
porn
star
Stormy
Daniels.
He
has
pleaded
not
guilty
in
that
case.

Trump
also
faces
pending
federal
criminal
investigations
related
to
his
efforts
to
overturn
his
loss
in
the
2020
presidential
election,
and
to
his
failure
to
surrender
government
documents
when
he
left
the
White
House
in
early
2021.

And
he
faces
possible
indictment
by
a
Georgia
grand
jury
this
summer
for
his
attempt
to
get
officials
in
that
state
to
reverse
President
Joe
Biden’s
victory
there
in
the
2020
election.

Georgia
was
one
of
several
swing
states
that
gave
Biden
his
margin
of
victory
in
the
Electoral
College.

Trump
cannot
be
prosecuted
for
the
alleged
rape
of
Carroll
because
the
statute
of
limitations
for
such
a
crime
has
long
since
passed.

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.

Carroll
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.”

Despite
that
claim,
Trump
in
a
deposition
for
the
case
taken
by
Robert
Kaplan
last
fall
mistook
Carroll
for
his
second
wife
Marla
Maples
in
a
photo
showing
him
and
Carroll
together
in
the
1980s.

Portions
of
a
video
of
his
deposition
were
played
for
jurors
during
the
trial,
and
during
closing
arguments
on
Monday.

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.”

But
he
also
said
it
has
been
“historically
…
true
with
stars”
that
they
could
grab
women
without
their
permission.

“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.”

Carroll
recounted
running
into
Trump
and
chatting
with
him
late
one
afternoon
Bergdorf
Goodman,
where
he
recognized
her
as
an
advice
columnist.

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.

Two
friends
of
Carroll’s,
Lisa
Birnbach
and
Carol
Marin,
testified
she
had
told
them
soon
afterward
that
Trump
had
raped
her.

Two
other
women
testified
that
Trump
had
kissed
and
groped
them
without
their
consent
in
incidents
that
occurred
years
apart.

A
spokesman
for
Trump’s
2024
presidential
campaign
said
of
Tuesday’s
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
endeavor
targeting
President
Trump
because
he
is
now
an
overwhelming
front-runner
to
be
once
again
elected
President of
the
United
States.”

But
Sen.
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
NBC
News.
“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.”

Read:
The
Trump
jury
verdict
form