A New York federal jury has found Donald Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation against the author E. Jean Carroll. The jury ordered the former president to pay Carroll $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
Trump was not found liable for the more serious charge of rape leveled against him by Carroll.
“We are very happy,” Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan told the press as she left the courthouse with her client. Carroll did not address reporters.
In her suit, Carroll had alleged that Trump had raped her in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman store in the mid-1990s.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan posed jurors a questionnaire in order to assist them in reaching a verdict. Questions read, “Did Ms. Carroll prove, by a preponderance of the evidence that, 1) Mr. Trump raped Ms. Carroll,” with a “yes/no” tick box option, “2) Mr. Trump sexually abused Ms. Carroll,” and so on.
In response to the verdict, Trump posted on his site Truth Social, “I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS. THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE — A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OFF ALL TIME!” He is expected to appeal.
Trump is set to appear at a town hall in New Hampshire tomorrow, hosted by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
