Trump accuser awarded $5M by NY jury for sexual abuse.

Donald Trump Found Liable for Sexual Assault and Defamation

A jury in Manhattan federal court has found former US President Donald Trump guilty of sexually assaulting magazine writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s and then defaming her by branding her a liar. The nine-member jury awarded about $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. The jury deliberated for just under three hours and rejected Trump’s denial that he assaulted Carroll and ruled in her favor. To find him liable, the jury of six men and three women was required to reach a unanimous verdict.

Impact on Trump’s Political Career

Trump is the front-runner in opinion polls for the Republican presidential nomination and has shown an uncanny ability to weather controversies that might sink other politicians. It seems unlikely in America’s polarized political climate that the civil verdict will have an impact on Trump’s core supporters, who view his legal woes as part of a concerted effort by opponents to undermine him. Any negative impact is likely to be small and limited to suburban women and moderate Republicans, according to Republican strategist Charlie Gerow.

Details of the Trial

Carroll, 79, testified during the civil trial that Trump, 76, raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan in either 1995 or 1996, then harmed her reputation by writing in an October 2022 post on his Truth Social platform that her claims were a “complete con job,” “a hoax” and “a lie.” Jurors were tasked with deciding whether Trump raped, sexually abused or forcibly touched Carroll, any one of which would satisfy her claim of battery. They were separately asked if Trump defamed Carroll.

The trial featured testimony from two women who said Trump sexually assaulted them decades ago. Former People magazine reporter Natasha Stoynoff told jurors that Trump cornered her at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida in 2005 and forcibly kissed her for a “few minutes” until a butler interrupted the alleged assault. Another woman, Jessica Leeds, testified that Trump kissed her, groped her and put his hand up her skirt on a flight in 1979. Jurors also heard excerpts from a 2005 “Access Hollywood” video in which Trump says women let him “grab ’em by the pussy.”

Trump’s Response

Trump’s legal team opted not to present a defense, gambling that jurors would find that Carroll had failed to make a persuasive case. Trump had said Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist and a registered Democrat, made up the allegations to try to increase sales of her 2019 memoir and to hurt him politically. Trump has repeatedly denied allegations of sexual misconduct. While he did not testify at the trial, a video clip from the October 2022 deposition showed him mistaking Carroll for one of his former wives in a black-and-white photo among several people at an event.