New York: A jury found Donald Trump liable Tuesday for sexually assaulting consultant columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996, awarding him $5 million, which could upset the former president as he seeks to regain the White House. Was campaigning for. The verdict was split: jurors rejected Carroll’s claim that she had been raped, finding Trump responsible for some degree of sexual assault. The decision adds to Trump’s legal woes and provides support for Carroll, whose allegations were mocked and dismissed by Trump for years. She nodded, then hugged supporters and smiled through tears as the verdict was announced in federal court in New York City less than three hours after deliberations began. As the courtroom emptied, Carroll heard laughter and crying.
Jurors also found Trump responsible for defaming Carroll over his allegations. Trump did not attend the civil trial and was absent when the verdict was read. Trump immediately claimed on his social media site that he did not know Carroll and referred to the verdict as a “disgrace” and “a continuation of the biggest witch hunt ever”. He promised to appeal.
Trump’s lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, shook hands with Carroll and hugged his lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, after the verdict was announced. Outside the courthouse, she told reporters that it was “surprising” and “strange” for the jury to dismiss the rape claim, finding Trump responsible for sexual assault.
“Part of me was obviously very happy that Donald Trump was not branded a rapist,” he said.
He defended Trump’s absence, citing the “circus atmosphere” of the trial. He added that having Trump there would be “more of a circus.”
Tacopina said: “What else can you say other than ‘I didn’t do it’?”
In a written statement, Kaplan said the verdict proves that no one is above the law, “not even the President of the United States.”
In her own statement, Carroll said she sued Trump to “clear my name and get my life back. Today, the world finally knows the truth. This victory is not just for me, but for every woman who Suffered because she wasn’t. Agreed.”
It was unclear what, if any, impact the decision would have on Trump’s third presidential bid. He occupies an influential position among GOP contenders and has faced some political consequences in the wake of past controversies, ranging from the pornographic “Access Hollywood” tapes to his New York criminal indictment.
His GOP rivals were mostly silent after the decision, a sign of their reluctance to cross over Trump supporters who are crucial to winning the presidential nomination. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, one of the few vocal Trump critics in the race, said the decision was “another example of Donald Trump’s erratic behavior.”
Carroll was one of more than a dozen women who accused Trump of sexual assault or harassment. She went public with her allegation in a 2019 memoir that the Republican raped her in the dressing room of a posh Manhattan department store.
Trump, 76, denied this, saying he never met Carroll at the store and did not know her. They called him a “nut job” who invented “a fraudulent and false story” to sell a memoir.
Carroll, 79, sought unspecified damages, as well as what she said were defamatory rebuttals of Trump’s own claims.
The trial revisited the lightning rod theme of Trump’s conduct toward women.
Carroll gave frank, sometimes emotional testimony over several days, supported by two friends, who testified that she had informed them of the alleged assault soon after.
Jurors also heard from Jessica Leeds, a former stockbroker who testified that Trump groped her against her will on an airline flight in the 1970s, and from Natasha Stoynoff, a writer who said that Trump forcibly groped her. Kissed against her will when she was interviewing him for him. A 2005 article.
The six-man, three-woman jury also viewed Trump’s famous 2005 “Access Hollywood” hot-mic recording of him kissing and grabbing women without asking.
The decision comes at a time when Trump is facing a growing vortex of legal risks.
He is fighting a criminal case in New York related to surreptitious payments of money to a porn star. The state attorney general has sued him, his family, and his business for alleged financial misappropriation.
Trump is also resisting investigations into his possible mishandling of classified documents, his actions following the 2020 election, and his activities during the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. Trump denies wrongdoing in all of those cases.
Carroll, who wrote the Elle magazine advice column for 27 years, has also written for magazines and “Saturday Night Live.” She and Trump were in social circles that overlapped at a 1987 party, where a photograph showed her and her then-spouse conversing. Trump has said he does not remember it.
According to Carroll, she ended up in a dressing room with Trump after bumping into each other at Bergdorf Goodman on an unspecified Thursday evening in the spring of 1996.
Carroll testified that they took an impromptu jest to the lingerie department to search for women’s gifts and were soon teasing each other about trying on tight bodysuits. To him, it sounded like comedy, something like his 1986 “Saturday Night Live” sketch in which a man gazes at himself in a mirror.
But then, she said, Trump slammed the door, pinned her against a wall, put his mouth on her, pulled down her trunks and raped her as she tried to break in. Carroll said he eventually pushed her with his knee and immediately left the store.
“I’ve always wondered why I went out there to put myself in that position,” she testified, her voice breaking, “but I’m proud to say I got out.”
He never called the police nor noted it in his diary. Carroll said she kept quiet out of fear that Trump would retaliate, out of shame and because she was worried that people would think she was partly responsible for the attack.
The jury awarded Carroll $2 million for sexually assaulting Trump and $20,000 in punitive damages. For defamation, the jurors awarded $1 million for Trump’s October statement, $1.7 million for damages to Carroll’s reputation, and $280,000 in punitive damages.
Tacopina told jurors that Carroll invented his claims after hearing about a 2012 “Law & Order” episode in which a woman was raped in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman store’s lingerie section.
He told jurors, “Carroll cannot provide any objective evidence to support her claim because it did not happen.” They accused him of “pushing a false rape claim for money for political reasons and status”.
In questioning Carroll, he sought to cast doubt on her description of fighting heavy tramps without dropping her handbag or tearing her tights, and without hearing or seeing them in the lingerie section.
The lawyer pressed her about – by her own account – not screaming, looking for help or seeking medical care, security video or the police while running through the store.
Carol rebukes him.
“I’m telling you he raped me whether I screamed or not,” she said.
There is no possibility of charging Trump for assaulting Carroll, as the legal deadline has passed.
For similar reasons, she initially filed her civil case as a defamation suit, stating that Trump’s outrageous denial had subjected her to scorn, damaged her reputation and damaged her career. delivered.
Then, starting last fall, the state of New York gave people a chance to sue on sexual assault charges that would otherwise be years old. Carroll was one of the first to file.