Former US President Donald Trump has been found liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E Jean Carroll in 1996, according to a federal jury verdict. The jury awarded Carroll $5m in damages for the abuse she suffered. The verdict was announced in a federal courtroom in New York City on the first day of jury deliberations. Jurors rejected Ms Carroll’s claims that she was raped but found Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing her. Hours earlier, US District Judge Lewis A Kaplan read instructions on the law to the nine-person jury. The verdict could hurt Trump’s attempt to run again for the White House.
Trump did not attend the trial and has consistently denied sexually assaulting Carroll or even knowing her. On defamation claims regarding a statement that Trump made on social media last October, Judge Kaplan said that jurors needed to be guided by a higher legal standard, clear and convincing evidence. The jurors would have to find that the statement was false, made maliciously with deliberate intent to injure or out of hatred or ill will with reckless disregard for Ms Carroll’s rights.
Meanwhile, Trump posted a new message on social media, complaining that he was awaiting the jury’s decision on a False Accusation. He said he was “not allowed to speak or defend myself, even as hard-nosed reporters scream questions about this case at me”. He said he would not speak until after the trial, “but will appeal the Unconstitutional silencing of me… no matter the outcome!” Trump never attended the trial and rejected an invitation to give evidence.
Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, told the jury in closing arguments that Ms Carroll’s account was too far-fetched to be believed, claiming she made it up to fuel sales of a 2019 memoir in which she first publicly revealed her allegations and to disparage Trump for political reasons. Ms Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, cited excerpts from Trump’s October deposition and his notorious comments in a 2005 video in which he said celebrities can grab women between the legs without asking. She urged the jurors to believe her client, adding that much of what he said in his deposition and in public statements “actually supports our side of the case”.
Ms Carroll, 79, told the court that she had a chance encounter with Mr Trump at the Bergdorf Goodman store across the street from Trump Tower in New York. She said it was a light-hearted interaction in which they teased each other about trying on a piece of lingerie before Mr Trump became violent inside a dressing room. Tacopina told the jurors there was no reason to call Trump as a witness when Ms Carroll could not even recall when her encounter with Trump happened.
He told the jury Ms Carroll made up her claims after hearing about a 2012 episode of TV show Law And Order in which a woman is raped in the dressing room of the lingerie section of a Bergdorf Goodman store. Two of Ms Carroll’s friends said she told them about the encounter with Mr Trump shortly after it happened, many years before the Law And Order episode aired.
In conclusion, the verdict proved that Trump sexually abused Carroll in 1996, but it did not find sufficient evidence to support her rape allegations. The jury rejected Tacopina’s defense that Carroll fabricated the story for financial gain and political reasons. Trump has also been indicted for other charges, including tax fraud and inciting the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021. The verdict deepens his legal troubles and haunts his potential political future. To his supporters, the verdict may appear biased, but to Carroll and her allies, it is a form of justice-seeking for a wrong that lasted for too long.
