Jury Fines Donald Trump For Sexually Abusing Columnist E Jean Carroll

• Orders him to pay $10m fine as compensation to the victim
• Verdict legally brands ex-President sexual predator but clears him of rape

A New York jury has found that former United States (US) President, Donald Trump, sexually abused the advice columnist, E Jean Carroll in a New York department store changing room about 27 years ago.

The verdict for the first time legally brands the former President a sexual predator. However, being the result of a civil and not criminal case, the only legal sanction Trump will face is financial.

The jury deliberated for less than three hours. It did not find Trump raped Carroll but did find him liable for battery. Consequently, it awarded Carroll about $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages; about $2 million on the sexual abuse count, and close to $3 million for defamation, for branding her a liar and calling her allegations a “con job”.

Before the verdict in the highly charged case was read, the judge, Lewis A Kaplan, warned those in the courtroom: “No shouting. No jumping up and down. No race for the door.”

Trump leads polling for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination by wide margins but the verdict adds to his legal woes. Last month, he pleaded not guilty to 34 criminal charges of falsifying business records over the payment of hush money to the porn star, Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election.

The former president, who looks likely to face criminal charges over his attempts to falsify the result of the 2020 election in Georgia, is also the target of a federal investigation into his actions during the 2020 election and its aftermath, including the attack on the US Capitol and the stashing of secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

This is in addition to fighting a civil lawsuit in New York state, over his business and tax affairs over the years.

In the Carroll case, a jury of three women and six men was persuaded by Carroll’s confident testimony during three days on the stand as she described the sexual assault in a New York department store changing room in 1996.

Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, said he would use Carroll’s own words to disprove her allegation. Tacopina also said he would show the former Elle magazine advice columnist conspired with friends to falsely accuse the former president because they “hated” Trump and his politics.

But after seven days of testimony, he failed to do either and the jury sided with Carroll who testified that the attack left her unable to have a romantic relationship. She said Trump “shattered my reputation” by denying the attack when she went public in 2019. Elle sacked her in months.

Trump repeatedly called Carroll a liar, including after her first day of testimony when he posted on his social media site, Truth Social, calling her accusations a “made-up SCAM”.

“This is a fraudulent and false story – Witch Hunt!” Trump wrote.

Carroll told the trial she ran into Trump as she was leaving the Bergdorf Goodman Luxury Department Store one evening in the spring of 1996.

“He said, ‘I need to buy a gift, come help me,’” she said. “I was delighted.”

Carroll said Trump told her the gift was for a woman so she suggested a handbag or a hat but he wasn’t interested.

“He picked up a fur hat and he was petting it like a cat or a dog. Then he said, ‘I know, lingerie,’” she said. “He led the way to the escalator.”

Carroll described herself as “absolutely enchanted” by Trump’s amusing chatter and said she was “delighted” to go to the lingerie department with him. She told the court he “snatched up” a bodysuit and told her to try it on. “I had no intention of putting it on. I said, ‘You put it on, it’s your colour’,” she said.

She said Trump suggested they both try it on and motioned toward the dressing room. She said she did not take him seriously, thinking it was all a big joke. The mood changed rapidly after they stepped into the dressing room.

“He immediately shut the door and shoved me up against the wall. He shoved me so hard my head banged. I was extremely confused,” she said.

Carroll said the situation “turned absolutely dark”. He leaned down and pulled down my tights,” she said. “I was pushing him back. It was quite clear I didn’t want anything else to happen.”

Carroll said she could not escape Trump’s grip. Speaking quietly and slowly, she said he raped her. According to the advice columnist, she will always regret going into the dressing room with Trump, describing it as “very stupid”.

Carroll shed tears as she explained that since the rape she found it impossible to even smile at a man she was attracted to and that it marked the end of her sex life.

Two of Carroll’s close friends told the trial that she confided in them about the attack immediately afterward but swore them to secrecy.

Tacopina challenged Carroll during nearly two days of cross-examination in which she denied falsely accusing Trump in order to sell books or for political ends. The lawyer focused on her actions during and immediately after the attack, questioning why she didn’t scream or call the police, and why she left it for more than 20 years to publicly accuse Trump.

But the line of questioning backfired after Carroll gave confident and credible explanations for her actions. She said her inability to give a single cause for not screaming was no evidence that she was lying. “One of the reasons women don’t come forward is because they’re always asked, ‘Why didn’t you scream?’ Some women scream. Some women don’t. It keeps women silent,” she said.

Carroll said she was too “ashamed” of having been assaulted to go to the police even if that’s the advice she gave in her Elle agony aunt column.

“I was born in 1943. I’m a member of the silent generation. Women like me were taught to keep our chins up and to not complain,” she said. “I would never call the police about something I am ashamed of.”

Carroll said she kept the attack secret for more than two decades for similar reasons. “I was never going to talk about what Donald Trump did,” she said, adding that she was motivated to speak up as the #MeToo movement took off and women across the US related experiences of sexual assault and harassment.

Carroll also sued Trump for defamation. She had expected him to say they had a consensual encounter, not deny it altogether. “It hit me and it laid me low because I lost my reputation. Nobody looked at me the same. It was gone. Even people who knew me looked at me with pity in their eyes, and the people who had no opinion now thought I was a liar and hated me,” she said.

The Advice columnist said she considers Trump “evil” and thought he was a “terrible” president but denied bringing the lawsuit against him because of her political views. “I’m not settling a political score. I’m settling a personal score,” she said.

Asked if she regretted accusing Trump given the consequences, Carroll’s voice broke. “I regretted this about 100 times but, in the end, being able to get my day in court finally is everything,” she said through tears. – With The Guardian reports