Former US President Donald Trump was found guilty of sexually assaulting magazine writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s and defaming her by calling her a liar, according to a verdict handed down by a nine-member jury in Manhattan federal court on May 9. Although the jurors did not agree with Carroll’s claim that Trump raped her, they found him liable for defamation and civil battery.
The jury awarded a total of around $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages to Carroll, with Trump ordered to pay nearly $3 million for defamation and around $2 million for civil battery.
Carroll was seen holding hands with her lawyers as the verdict was read and later left the courthouse without addressing reporters. The jurors were advised by Judge Lewis Kaplan not to identify themselves publicly. Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to call the verdict a “disgrace” and reiterated his claim that he had “absolutely no idea” who Carroll was. Trump was absent when the verdict was read, and his spokesperson for his 2024 Republican presidential campaign called the case a “political endeavour targeting President Trump.”
Carroll had accused Trump of raping her at a luxury department store in New York, with Trump later defaming her when she spoke the truth. Carroll had sued Trump for battery and defamation in a civil trial, denying making up her claims to drive publicity for her memoir. Trump, in his deposition, called her allegations politically motivated and “a false, disgusting lie” delivered by a “nut job.”
The jurors were tasked with deciding whether Trump raped, sexually abused, or forcibly touched Carroll, any one of which would have satisfied her claim of battery, while the defamation claim was to be separately deliberated. The former president has decided against testifying and will not face any criminal consequences as a result of the civil case.
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