In a trial for sexual assault and defamation, Donald Trump found guilty
Marina Linchevska / Shutterstock.com
Donald Turmp was recently convicted responsible by a federal jury in Manhattan in the civil battery and defamation lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll. The author asserted that the former real estate magnate sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room in the middle of the 1990s.
The jury of six men and three women in the civil case found Trump guilty of sexual assault and defamation but did not find him guilty of rape. Carroll received $2 million from the jury for violence and $3 million for libel.
Carroll’s assertions had been frequently criticized, attacked, and discounted by both former and current presidential candidates. Knowing Carroll well and rejecting the accusations, Trump called the long-running controversy “a complete con job.”
The jury deliberated for just over two and a half hours before reaching unanimous decisions. The jury instruction given by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan earlier this week was slightly over an hour longer than that.
With no defense to present, Trump’s legal team attempted to persuade the jury that Carroll was not a credible witness. In a civil action, the standard is “clear and convincing evidence,” as opposed to a criminal case where the plaintiffs must provide “proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”
In addition to Carroll’s evidence, two other women who had been abused by Trump testified during the two-week trial. The 76-year-old defendant also gave a meandering and confusing video deposition in October 2022 in which he confused a picture of Carroll with that of his second wife Marla Maples.
The judgment was handed down today, amid the flurry of lawsuits, indictments, and investigations the former one-term president is facing, and only hours before Trump is scheduled to participate in a rare town hall on CNN. Returning to the courts, just last week a judge dismissed Trump’s lawsuit against The New York Times and three journalists who published a 2018 article on his tax practices. This is happening as the Stormy Daniels case and indictment from the Manhattan District Attorney move forward.
Although the Trump administration has not yet made any official statements, it is almost expected that they will launch an appeal fairly soon.
