A New York jury on Tuesday found former President Donald Trump responsible for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s, but not responsible for her alleged rape.
The jury awarded him $5 million in damages for his assault and defamation claims.
Asked on their verdict sheet whether Carroll, 79, had proven «by a preponderance of the evidence» that «Mr. Trump raped Ms. Carroll,» the nine-person jury checked the box that read «No». When asked whether Carroll had proven «by a preponderance of the evidence» that «Mr. Trump sexually abused Ms. Carroll,» the jury checked the box that read «yes.» Both allegations were elements of Carroll’s assault claim.
The six men and three women also discovered that Trump had smeared her by calling her claims a «hoax» and «a scam.»
Carroll had no comment outside of court, but her attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said: «We are very happy.»
Trump, the 2024 presidential candidate, has consistently denied Carroll’s claims. He criticized the verdict on his social networking website shortly after the verdict was delivered.
«I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS. THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE: A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!» he wrote in social truth.
The verdict marks the first time a former president has been held civilly liable for sexual misconduct.
A Trump spokesman said in a statement: «Make no mistake, this entire bogus case is a political effort directed against President Trump because he is now an overwhelming favorite to be elected President of the United States once again.»
«This case will be appealed and we will ultimately win,» the statement said.
Carroll filed her lawsuit charging Trump with assault and defamation in Manhattan federal court last year, alleging that he raped her in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman department store near her Fifth Avenue home in 1995 or 1996. he made the claim public in 2019 in his book, “What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal.”
The jury’s verdict has no criminal implications. The legal standard of liability in the civil case—the preponderance of the evidence—was not as high as in criminal cases. The civil benchmark is that something is more likely to have happened, while the standard for convictions in criminal cases is proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Trump, first as president and then as a private citizen, dismissed her story as fiction he made up to boost book sales, saying the writer «isn’t my type.» She did not testify in the case, but parts of his videotaped deposition from October were shown to the jury.
The verdict was to be unanimous.
Carroll was her own star witness at the trial, which began on April 25. “I am here because Trump raped me,” she told the jury during her three days on the witness stand.
Carroll said she had met Trump once before, in the late 1980s, before bumping into him at the entrance to the department store near Trump’s home and office at Trump Tower.
Carroll, an advice columnist for Elle magazine at the time, said Trump told her he was shopping for a friend and invited her to come along. “He was very nice,” she said.
She said she had fun chatting with him when the excursion finally led her to the lingerie department on the sixth floor. “He was playful and personable and a lot of fun,” she said, and the two joked about trying on lingerie.
Carroll alleged that Trump motioned for her to go to the dressing room, and when she entered, he “shut the door and pushed me against the wall” and raped her. «I couldn’t see anything happening, but I could certainly feel that pain,» he said, claiming the attack lasted a «few minutes» before he was able to run away.
Carroll said she then called a friend, writer Lisa Birnbach, to tell her what had happened, and Birnbach told her to call the police. Carroll said she told him «no way» because she blamed herself for the attack.
Carroll also said she told another friend, Carol Martin, what happened days later, and Martin urged her not to go to the police for fear the real estate mogul and his lawyers would «bury» her.
Birnbach and Martin testified on Carroll’s behalf and supported his version.
trump’s defense
Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, told the jury in his opening statement that Carroll’s claims were «unbelievable.»
“She is doing this for money, political reasons and status,” he alleged. «And by doing so, she is minimizing the actual rape victims and destroying her pain and taking advantage of it.»
When Carroll was on the witness stand, he asked her if she had been «allegedly raped». “They raped me,” she replied.
Tacopina also repeatedly pressed her about why she didn’t yell for help or go to the police.
«He raped me, whether I screamed or not,» Carroll told her.
Asked if she agreed that not reporting the attack to the police «is a strange occurrence,» Carroll said: «A lot of women don’t go to the police, and I understand why.»
Tacopina also questioned Carroll, a Democrat, about her politics and her past social media posts, including one from 2012 in which she said she was a big fan of Trump’s «The Apprentice.»
“I was a huge fan of the show. He impressed me a lot,” Carroll testified, adding that he didn’t like them and he didn’t want to see the parts where Trump fired the contestants.
Trump’s lawyers ended up resting their case without calling witnesses. Trump had been listed as a possible witness but waived his right to testify, Tacopina told the judge presiding over the case, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan.
other accusers
Meanwhile, Carroll’s lawyers showed excerpts from Trump’s deposition to the jury, including a part in which he misidentified a 1980s photo of Carroll as his now-ex-wife Marla Maples.
They also tried to bolster their case by presenting the testimony of two other women who claimed to have been approached by the businessman.
Jessica Leeds, 81, alleged that Trump began groping her out of nowhere while they were sitting next to each other on a flight to New York in the late 1970s. The other, Natasha Stoynoff, testified that she had gone to the resort Trump’s Mar-a-Lago in 2005 to interview him and Melania Trump for a story about their first wedding anniversary. She alleged that Trump pushed her against a wall and began kissing her before a member of her staff interrupted them.
Trump has denied the claims by Leeds and Stoynoff. At a campaign rally in 2016, Trump appeared to mock Leeds’ appearance as he ridiculed the allegations about him, saying he «wouldn’t be my first choice.»
He defended those comments in his statement, where he also repeatedly insulted Carroll, his lawyer Roberta Kaplan, Leeds and Stoynoff.
“I don’t want to insult, but when people accuse me of something, I think I have the right to insult because they are insulting me. Are they doing the ultimate insult, making up stories, and then I’m not allowed to speak my mind? No. I don’t agree with that,” she said.
An anonymous jury
In an unusual move for a civil case, the judge used an anonymous jury for the trial, citing Trump’s record of inflammatory rhetoric about the justice system.
“It is worth mentioning that Mr. Trump has repeatedly attacked courts, judges, various law enforcement and other public officials, and even individual juries on other matters,” Kaplan said in his statement. decision.
He said he would keep their identities secret even from the lawyers for both sides because, «if the identities of the jurors were revealed, there would be a high probability of unwanted media attention towards the jurors, attempts to influence and/or or harassment or worse for jurors.» by supporters of Mr. Trump.”
The nine selected jurors swore that they could be impartial.
The verdict might not be the last time the two sides face each other in court.
Carroll filed an earlier lawsuit against Trump over allegedly defamatory comments he made about her over the rape allegations while he was president. That case is still pending in the same court and before the same judge in the second case.
It had been deadlocked in a Washington, D.C., federal appeals court over whether Trump was immune from liability because he was president at the time of the comments. The appeals court returned that case to Kaplan last month.
In November, Carroll filed the second lawsuit to go to trial on the rape allegation, as well as a new defamation lawsuit stemming from Trump’s post-presidency comments about her. She introduced him after he passed New York a law that opened a one-year window for adult victims of sex crimes to file civil lawsuits, even if the statute of limitations on their claims had expired, as Carroll did.