Donald Trump, in New York, January 26, 2024. YUKI IWAMURA / AP
83.3 million dollars (76.7 million euros)! This is the sum that Donald Trump was ordered to pay to E. Jean Carroll for having defamed her, against the backdrop of sexual assault in the 1990s. So decided a Manhattan civil jury in rendering its verdict on Friday January 26 late afternoon.
In detail, they granted the complainant, former columnist of the magazine Elle now 80, $18.3 million in damages plus an additional $65 million in “punitive” damages after finding that Trump, in a June 21, 2019 statement, had “acted with malice, hatred, ill will or spite, vengeance or willful disregard of Ms. Carroll’s rights.”
Donald Trump left the Manhattan court before the verdict was rendered but he quickly reacted on his Truth Social network: “Absolutely ridiculous!” I completely disagree and will appeal this entire Biden-led witch hunt centered on me and the Republican Party. Our legal system is out of control and is being used as a political weapon. They took away all first amendment rights [de la Constitution, qui garantit la liberté d’expression]. THIS IS NOT AMERICA! »
This is the second time that Donald Trump has been convicted in this case. In May 2023, a jury sentenced him to $5 million in damages after he was found responsible for sexually assaulting – not raping – Ms. Carroll in 1996 and defaming her in 2022. This being a civil trial, the burden of proof was lighter and no prison sentence was possible.
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In a book published in 2019, E. Jean Carroll explained that she was raped in a fitting room at the New York store Bergdorf-Goodman, on Fifth Avenue, in Manhattan. She said that Donald Trump had encouraged her to try on lingerie. Once they entered the dressing room, according to Ms. Carroll, he pushed her against the wall, kissed her on the lips, then pulled down her tights, unzipped her pants and forced her “fingers around my private part pushing his penis half – or completely, I’m not sure – inside me”. Donald Trump, who was president of the United States at the time of the book’s release, called Ms. Carroll a liar and suggested that a sexual relationship with her was impossible because she was not ” not [s]on type ». Ms. Carroll then decided in 2022 to attack him for rape and defamation.
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2024-01-27 02:04:02
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