A Manhattan jury on Tuesday found former United States President, Donald J. Trump, liable for sexually abusing and defaming a former magazine writer, E. Jean Carroll, and awarded her $5 million in damages.
More than a dozen women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct over the years, but this is the only allegation to be affirmed by a jury.
The federal jury, which consisted of six men and three women, found that Carroll, 79, had sufficiently proved that Trump sexually abused her nearly 30 years ago in a dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan. The jury did not, however, find he had raped her, as she had long claimed.
The jury, in returning the verdict shortly before 3 p.m., also found that Trump, who is running to regain the presidency, defamed Carroll in October 2022 when he posted a statement on his Truth Social platform calling her case “a complete con job” and “a Hoax and a lie.”
Trump’s lawyers called no witnesses, and he never appeared at the trial to hear Carroll, who had sued him last year, delivering visceral testimony about the attack she said had ended her romantic life forever.
However, Trump’s lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, told the jury in closing arguments on Monday that Carroll’s story is too far-fetched to be believed.
He claimed that she made it up to fuel sales of her 2019 memoir, and that she wanted to disparage Trump for political reasons.
In a Truth Social post after the verdict, Trump continued to insist that he did not know Carroll.
He said, “I have absolutely no idea who this woman is. This verdict is a disgrace — a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time!”
His lawyer said outside the courthouse that the case would be appealed. He also defended Trump’s absence from the courtroom and his decision not to testify in his own defense.
“This was a circus atmosphere, and having him be here would be more of a circus,” Tacopina said.
