2023-05-09 20:32:50
- Madeleine Halpert and Max Matza
- BBC News
Carol smiled at reporters as she left the courtroom
A jury in a New York civil court on Tuesday held former US President Donald Trump liable for sexually harassing writer Jane Carroll in the 1990s.
But it found Trump not responsible for the rape of E. Jean Carroll in Bergdorf Goodman’s dressing room.
The jury also held Trump responsible for defamation for describing the author’s accusations as a “hoax and a lie.”
This is the first time Trump has been held liable for a sexual assault.
A Manhattan jury ordered Trump to pay nearly $5 million in damages.
And because the trial was in a civil court – not a criminal one – Trump will not be classified as a sex offender.
The jury of six men and three women reached its decision following less than three hours of deliberation on Tuesday.
Trump, who has denied the charges, did not attend the two-week civil trial in Manhattan federal court.
Carroll, 79, held her lawyer’s hands as the verdict was read out in court and smiled as the jury awarded her damages.
Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacubina, shook hands with her as the trial ended, telling her, “Congratulations and we wish you well.”
Carroll did not stop outside the court, but told reporters “we are very happy” before leaving in a car with her lawyer.
After the verdict was handed down, Trump, 76, wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, in capital letters: “I have absolutely no idea who this woman is.”
“This verdict is a disgrace, and a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time!” .
The trial witnessed tense cross-examination between Carroll and Trump’s lawyer.
Her legal team called 11 witnesses to corroborate her allegations that Trump assaulted her in the lingerie section of the luxury store in 1995 or 1996.
They included two women who also say they were sexually assaulted by Trump decades earlier, and two old friends of hers who say she told them regarding the encounter with Trump shortly following it happened.
On the stage, Carole described in detail what she claims happened in the shop and the trauma she says she has endured as a result.
She told the court: “I’m here because Donald Trump raped me and when I wrote regarding it, he lied and said it didn’t happen.”
Trump did not call any witnesses, and appeared only in a video of testimony shown to the jury in which he denied rape.
“It’s the most ridiculous and disgusting story,” Trump said in the video. “It’s just made up.”
Carroll’s lawsuit argued that Trump defamed her in an October 2022 post on his social media site that called her claims “a complete hoax and lie.”
Her legal team said Trump acted as a “witness once morest himself” during the testimony when he doubled down on comments he made in the 2005 recording.
In the audio, known as the “Access Hollywood” tape, which was leaked in 2016, Trump suggested women should let the stars “do anything” for them, including grabbing their genitals.
image copyright Getty Images
“That’s what he did to Carol,” argued Roberta Kaplan. Kaplan is not affiliated with the judge in the case, Lewis Kaplan.
In the recorded video testimony, Trump at one point confused Carroll with his ex-wife, Marla Maples, which Carroll’s lawyers said undermined his claim that she was “not his type.”
Tacupina sought to cast doubt on Carroll’s story, which he called “a work of fiction”.
He questioned why Carroll might not date the assault, arguing that it stripped Trump of his ability to provide an alibi.
“With no date, month or year, you can’t make an excuse, you can’t call witnesses,” Tacopina said. “What they want is for you to hate him enough to ignore the facts.”
Takupina also pressed her regarding why she should not report a crime to the police or scream as it happened.
He raised questions regarding the scene of the alleged assault, describing it as “incredible” that it had happened in a popular shop without any employees witnessing it.
Carroll stood on the stand for three days and told the court how Trump’s false claims had negatively affected her life.
The former Elle magazine columnist was able to file a civil lawsuit once morest Trump following New York passed the Adult Survivors Act in 2022.
The law allowed a one-year period for victims to file sexual assault claims in the state, involving claims that would normally go beyond the limits of the law.
The standard of proof in civil cases is lower than in criminal cases, meaning that jurors were only required to discover that it was likely that Trump assaulted Carroll.
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