Former U.S. president Donald Trump has been found liable for the sexual abuse and defamation of the magazine writer E. Jean Carroll by a Manhattan jury.
– Key points to note
A federal jury made of six men and three women on Tuesday awarded $5 million in damages in favour of Ms Carroll in the widely watched civil trial.
However, the jury ruled that Ms Carroll, 79, did not prove that Mr Trump had raped her, as she claimed.
– Learn more
Ms Carroll, a former magazine columnist, said Mr Trump abused and raped her in a department store nearly 30 years ago.
The payment cover “willfully or wantonly negligent, reckless, or done with a conscious disregard of the rights of Ms. Carroll, defamation and compensation for reputational damage.”
The lawsuit was filed under the Adult Survivors Act, a New York law signed in 2022 that allowed victims of abuse a one-time opportunity to sue those responsible, even if the statute of limitations was up.
Ms Carroll recounted over three days blow by blow account of a horrible encounter with Mr Trump in the store. The event had lifelong consequences, she said: “It left me unable to ever have a romantic life again.”
Mr Trump has denied Ms Carroll’s allegations and has called the jury’s verdict a “total disgrace” and termed it a “continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time. He maintains he have never know E. Jean Carroll and will appeal the verdict.
After the verdict, Mr Trump posted a series of video rants on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday accusing Ms Carrol of lying about the encounter, claiming that she wasn’t “my type”.
Several women have accused Mr Trump of rape and sexual abuse, but Ms Carroll’s case has been the first to be tested in court.
Discover more from Pluboard
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.