Former President Donald J. Trump has been found liable of sexually abusing and forcibly touching E Jean Carroll, and defaming her when he accused her of making up the allegations.
A jury in New York found that he was not guilty of a rape claim but did find him liable for the other claims. The verdict in the civil trial came after less than three hours of deliberation from the six men and three women on the jury.
He will now be asked to pay Carroll, 79, almost $5 million in damages; nearly $3 million in damages after she successfully proved her defamation claim and $2 million in damages for her civil battery claim
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Carroll, 79, alleged in a lawsuit that Trump, a businessman who became President of the United States between 2017 and 2021, of sexually assaulting her in a dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in 1996.
She made the civil claim under a new 2022 New York state law - the New York State Adult Survivors Act - that opened a one-year window for lawsuits alleging sexual assaults which would otherwise have been barred by the statute of limitations.
Trump did not testify during the trial but portions of his deposition in 2022 were played for the jurors.
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To prove her defamation claim, CNN shared that "the jury must find that Carroll’s legal team proved by the preponderance of the evidence that Trump knew it was false when he published the statement about Carroll last year and knowingly exposed her to public ridicule".
The jury also had to "determine that she proved by clear and convincing evidence that the statement was false, and that Trump made the statement with actual malice".
Carroll spent two days on the stand, sharing her story; she was joined on the stand by two friends who both shared their recollection of Carroll’s account in 1996.
© Getty ImagesJournalist Lisa Birnbach testified that Carroll called her "minutes" after she left the department store, and former local New York anchor Carol Martin also testified that Carroll "confided in her within days after the alleged incident".
Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, who allege Trump physically forced himself on them, also testified about their alleged altercations.
“Three different women, decades apart, but one single pattern of behavior. What happened to Ms. Carroll is not unique in that respect. Trump’s physical attacks and verbal attacks are his standard operational procedure,” attorney Roberta Kaplan said.
Trump has also denied Leeds’ and Stoynoff’s allegations against him.
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© GettyJudge Lewis Kaplan dismissed the jury after the verdict, but suggested that they did not identify themselves publicly.
“My advice to you is not to identify yourselves. Not now and not for a long time,” Kaplan said. “If you’re one who elects to speak to others and to identify yourselves to others, I direct you not to identify anyone else who sat on this jury. Each of you owes that to the other whatever you decided for yourself.”
© GettyThe verdcict comes a month ster Trump – who has been impeached twice and plans to run for president again after losing to President Joe Biden in 2020 – was arrested and read the 34 counts he has been charged with over an ongoing investigation into his involvement in paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels, through several reimbursements amounting to $130,000 to his former attorney Michael Cohen.
Daniels and Trump had a one-time affair in 2006 in a Nevada hotel room, one year after he married current, third wife Melania Trump, née Knauss.
© GettyTrump pled not guilty to all 34 felony counts he is being charged with, for falsifying business records, which while in New York it is usually a misdemeanor punishable by no more than one year in prison, it becomes a felony punishable by up to four years in prison when done in order to either exacerbate or conceal a previous crime.
Though any prison time will most likely be far less than, the charges carry a maximum sentence of 136 years in prison under New York law.
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