A Manhattan federal jury found that Donald Trump sexually abused E. Jean Carroll in a luxury department store dressing room in the spring of 1996 and awarded her $5 million for battery and defamation.
Carroll alleged Trump raped her in the Bergdorf Goodman department store and then defamed her when he denied her claim, said she wasn’t his type and suggested she made up the story to boost sales of her book. Trump denied all wrongdoing. He does not face any jail time as a result of the civil verdict.
While the jury found that Trump sexually abused her, sufficient to hold him liable for battery, the jury did not find that Carroll proved he raped her.
Carroll filed the lawsuit last November under the “New York State Adult Survivors Act,” a state bill which opened a look-back window for sexual assault allegations like Carroll’s with long-expired statutes of limitation.
Trump did not attend the trial. Like any defendant in a civil case, he was not required to appear in court for trial or any proceedings and has a right not to testify in his own defence.
Carroll called the verdict a victory for her and other victims of abuse.
“I filed this lawsuit against Donald Trump to clear my name and to get my life back,” she said in a statement. “Today, the world finally knows the truth. This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed.”
Carroll’s lead attorney, Roberta Kaplan also released a statement saying, “No one is above the law, not even a former President of the United States.”
In videos posted to his social media platform Truth Social Tuesday evening, Trump said he plans to appeal the verdict, calling it a “disgrace” and “political witch hunt.” He also repeated his claim he did not know who Carroll was.
Trump attorney Joe Tacopina outside the court Tuesday said that he had spoken to the former president and that he is “ready to proceed and go forward.”
“He’s firm in his belief, as many people are, that he cannot get a fair trial in New York City based on the jury pool,” Tacopina said.
Tacopina called the verdict “strange,” emphasizing that the jury had not found Trump liable for rape.
“This was a rape claim. This was rape case all along and the jury rejected that, but made other findings,” he said. “But they rejected her rape claim and she’d always claimed this was a rape case so it’s a little perplexing, but we move forward.”
The verdict comes as the 2024 Republican presidential primary field takes shape, with Trump as the early frontrunner.
His potential rivals, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have so far criticized Trump on electability grounds but have stayed away from the former president’s legal troubles – including Carroll’s allegations and the Manhattan probe into a hush-money scheme.
That reluctance to attack Trump over allegations stems from his ability to survive scandals that would have doomed most politicians – including the 2016 release of the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which he bragged that stars can “do anything” to women. Tacopina asserted after the verdict that the tape shouldn’t have been allowed as evidence, saying “We’re very confident on the appellate issues here.”
But as his legal troubles mount, with probes in New York, Washington, DC, and Georgia still underway and primary debates set to begin in August, Trump’s goodwill with GOP voters will again be tested in the coming months.
Verdict doesn’t affect Trump’s legal ability to run for president
The verdict not have any legal effect on Trump’s presidential candidacy. For one, it is a civil case, and during the 2016 campaign Trump also faced all sorts of civil action – like the fraud cases concerning Trump University that were settled shortly after he was elected – that had no bearing on the requirements for the presidency that are laid out in the Constitution.
Trump also faces unrelated criminal exposure, most prominently in the case that Manhattan prosecutors have brought against him for hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who claimed they two had an extramarital affair (Trump denies the claim).
At the same time, successful criminal prosecution of the former president is unlikely to affect – at least from a legal standpoint – his ability to be reelected to the White House.
Notably, there is precedent for convicted felons to run for federal office – including for the office of the presidency. Eugene V. Debs, a perennial socialist candidate for the White House in the early 20th century, was incarcerated on an espionage conviction when he won more than 900,000 votes in a 1920 presidential campaign. (CNN)
