UNITED STATES: Donald Trump must pay $5 million in compensation for sexually assaulting magazine writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s and then defaming her by calling her a liar, a jury concluded on Tuesday.
“Today, the world finally knows the truth. This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed,” Carroll stated.
The former American president, who is running for reelection in 2024, will appeal, his attorney Joseph Tacopina told journalists outside the Manhattan federal courthouse.
Carroll, 79, testified in the civil trial that Trump, 76, sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in Manhattan in either 1995 or 1996. After that, Trump damaged her reputation by calling Carroll’s claims “a complete con job,” “a hoax,” and “a lie” in an October 2022 post on his Truth Social platform.
The trial started on April 25, and Trump was not present for the entire time. In a blog post on his Truth Social platform, Trump referred to the decision as a “disgrace” and claimed, “I have absolutely no idea who this woman is.”
Because it was a civil matter, Trump is exempt from prosecution, and no prison time was ever a threat.
The jury deliberated for slightly under three hours since they had to reach a unanimous decision. Carroll received $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages from the panel’s six men and three women, but Trump will not be held responsible while the case is on appeal.
In April, Trump identified more than a dozen properties as being worth “over $50 million” each, but this was the only financial disclosure that he provided to the election authorities.
Trump, who will serve as president from 2017 to 2021, is the current front-runner in surveys for the Republican presidential nomination and has demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to withstand scandals that would likely bring down other presidents.
The civil verdict is unlikely to affect Trump’s core fans, who regard his legal troubles as a coordinated effort by opponents to discredit him, given the polarised political environment in America today.
Charlie Gerow, a Republican consultant in Pennsylvania, said that “the folks that are anti-Trump are going to remain that way; the core pro-Trump voters are not going to change; and the ambivalent ones, I just don’t think are going to be moved by this type of thing.”
“Any negative effects are likely to be minor and restricted to moderate Republicans and suburban women,” said Gerow.
Trump has used the Carroll trial as proof of what he claims is a Democratic scheme in campaign fundraising emails. He said that Democrat and former Elle magazine columnist Carroll, a registered Republican, cooked up the charges to damage him politically and boost sales of her upcoming memoir.
His poll numbers increased after he was accused last month of falsifying business records concerning a hush money payment to a porn star before his election victory in 2016.
Trump, who has pleaded not guilty and said the allegations are politically motivated, is the first U.S. president—past or present—to be accused of a crime.
Democratic strategist Lis Smith said it was still unclear whether the Carroll case verdict would make Trump “unpalatable” to Republican supporters outside of his base, causing them to unite behind a different candidate.
Natasha Stoynoff, a former reporter for People magazine, testified in the trial. She told the jury that in 2005, Trump approached her at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and forcedly kissed her for “a few minutes.” Jessica Leeds, a different woman, claimed that on a flight in 1979, Trump kissed her, made unwanted advances, and reached his hand up her skirt.
Additionally, the jury heard snippets from a 2005 “Access Hollywood” video in which Trump claims that women have allowed him to “grab ’em by the pussy.”
In a video deposition from October 2022 that was shown in court, Trump stated, “Historically, that’s true, with stars … if you look over the last million years.” Allegations of sexual misbehaviour against him have been frequently refuted.
Carroll said that she ran into Trump at Bergdorf’s and volunteered to assist him in choosing a gift for a different woman. She testified that the two looked at intimate apparel before he enticed her into a dressing room, smashed her head against a wall, pulled down her tights, and penetrated her. Carroll said that she could not recall the exact day or year of the alleged rape.
Jurors were asked whether Trump had sexually assaulted, molested, or forcibly touched Carroll. They were also asked if Trump had slandered Carroll. The jury determined that Trump had assaulted her sexually but not that he had raped her.
Judge Lewis Kaplan provided the jury with a definition of rape before deliberating: non-consensual “sexual intercourse” resulting from “forcible compulsion.” He defined sexual abuse as “sexual contact” that is forced or non-consensual.
Carroll received $2 million in compensatory damages and $20,000 in punitive damages from the jury in response to her claim of violence, and $2.7 million in compensatory damages and $280,000 in punitive damages in response to her defamation claim.
Carroll’s testimony was contested by Trump’s legal team, which also questioned why she never reported the incident to the police or yelled during the alleged assault.
Two of Carroll’s friends claim that she initially told them about the alleged rape but made them swear to secrecy out of fear that Trump would use his notoriety and resources against her if she came forward.
Carroll testified to the jury that she decided to come forward with her narrative of being sexually assaulted by a powerful man in 2017 as a result of the Harvey Weinstein rape claims. She made her account public while Trump was in office.
She said that Trump’s public denials destroyed her career and inspired his fans to launch a violent internet harassment campaign against her.
Although Trump did not testify at the trial, a video clip from the deposition in October 2022 revealed his mistaking Carroll for one of his ex-wives in a black-and-white photograph amid other attendees at an event.
In the deposition, Trump referred to his second wife, Marla Maples, by saying, “It’s Marla.” Previously, Trump claimed he was unable to have raped Carroll because she was “not my type.”
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