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New York: Donald Trump sexually assaulted magazine writer E. Jane Carroll in the 1990s and then tarnished her by calling her a liar, the jury decided on Tuesday, dealing with the first The president is us Legal setback as is campaigns to regain his position in 2024.
The nine-member jury in Manhattan federal court awarded nearly $5 million in punitive and punitive damages.
The jury deliberated for less than three hours. She rejected Trump’s denial of assaulting Carroll and ruled in her favour. To prove his responsibility, the jury of six men and three women was required to reach a unanimous verdict.
Carroll, 79, testified during the civil trial that Trump, 76, raped her in the dressing room at Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman department store in 1995 or 1996, then damaged her reputation by writing in an October 2022 post on his Truth Social platform. The claims were a “complete hoax job”, “a hoax”, and a “lie”.
President from 2017 to 2021, Trump is the front-runner in opinion polls for the Republican presidential nomination and has shown an uncanny ability to navigate controversies that might sink other politicians.
It seems unlikely in the polarized American political climate that civilian rule would have an impact on Trump’s core supporters, who view his legal troubles as part of a concerted effort by opponents to undermine him.
“The anti-Trump people are going to stay that way, the pro-Trump voters aren’t going to change, the contrarian people I don’t think are going to be affected by that kind of thing,” he said. Charlie Gero, Republican strategist in Pennsylvania.
He said any negative impact is likely to be small and limited to suburban women and moderate Republicans.
Juries were tasked with deciding whether Trump raped, sexually assaulted, or forcibly groped Carol, which of them would satisfy her beating claim. They were asked separately if Trump defamed Carroll.
Because this was a civil case, Trump faced no criminal consequences. Carroll was seeking unspecified monetary damages.
Trump’s legal team chose not to present a defense, gambling that jurors will find that Carroll fails to present a compelling case.
Trump said Carroll, a former Elle columnist and registered Democrat, made up the allegations to try to boost sales of her 2019 memoir and to hurt him politically.
Because the case was in civil court, Carroll was asked to prove the rape allegation by a “preponderance of the evidence”—meaning it was more likely than not—rather than the higher standard used in criminal cases of “prove beyond a reasonable doubt.” Carroll had to show “clear and convincing evidence” to substantiate the defamation claim.
The trial included testimony from two women who said Trump sexually assaulted them decades ago.
Former People magazine reporter Natasha Stoynoff told the jury that Trump cornered her at a Mar-a-Lago club in Florida in 2005 and forcibly kissed her for “a few minutes” until the butler stopped the alleged assault. Another woman, Jessica Leeds, testified that Trump kissed her, touched her, and raised his hand up her skirt on a plane in 1979.
The jurors also heard excerpts from a 2005 “Access Hollywood” video in which Trump says the women let him “grab them by the pussy.”
“Historically, that’s true with the stars…if you look over the last million years,” Trump said in an October 2022 video that was shown in court. He has repeatedly denied allegations of sexual misconduct.
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, told jurors during closing arguments Monday that the 2005 video was evidence that Trump assaulted Carroll and other women.
The federal trial, presided over by US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is not related to Carroll’s attorney, opened on April 25. Based on the unique nature of a civil case against a former president, the judge decided that the names, addresses, and workplaces of the jurors would be kept secret.
Carroll testified that she bumped into Trump in Bergdorf while he was shopping for a gift for another woman. Carroll said she agreed to help Trump get a gift and the two looked at the lingerie before he shoved her into a dressing room, slammed her head against a wall and raped her. Carroll testified that she could not remember the exact date or year the alleged rape occurred.
Carroll has faced questions from Trump’s legal team attacking the plausibility of her account, including why she did not report the matter to the police or screamed during the alleged incident.
Two of Carroll’s friends said she told them about the alleged rape at the time, but swore them to secrecy because she feared Trump would use his fame and fortune to exact revenge on her if she came forward.
Carroll told jurors she decided to break her silence in 2017 after allegations of rape against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein prompted dozens of women to come forward with accounts of sexual violence by powerful men. She went public about her account while Trump was still president.
She said Trump’s public denials destroyed her career and incited a vicious campaign of online harassment by his supporters including various threatening messages and social media posts.
While Trump did not testify at the trial, video from the October 2022 nomination showed him mistaking Carroll for one of his ex-wives in a black-and-white photo among several people at an event.
“It’s Marla,” Trump said in the filing, referring to his second wife, Marla Maples. Previously Trump said he couldn’t rape Carol because she wasn’t “his type”.
Trump cited Carroll’s impeachment in his campaign fundraising emails as evidence of what he portrays as a Democratic plot to damage him politically.
His poll numbers improved after he was charged in New York in March with falsifying business records over paying a porn star ahead of his 2016 presidential election victory.
This indictment was brought to a New York state court, and made him the first former or current US president to be criminally charged. Trump pleaded not guilty and said the charges were politically motivated.



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