$5 million in damages
Donald Trump’s legal troubles are getting deeper.
Yesterday, a jury found the former president liable for sexual abuse and defamation from the magazine writer E. Jean Carroll, who ordered him to pay her $5 million. The case was a civil trial, meaning Trump will not face jail time. But the verdict indicates that jurors believed Carroll’s claim that Trump assaulted her in a department store locker room in the mid-1990s.
Carroll also accused Trump of raping her. The jury ruled against Carroll on that point, finding insufficient evidence to support her claim.
Today’s newsletter covers the details of the case, reactions to the verdict and possible political ramifications.
The case
At the heart of the lawsuit was Carroll’s account of her meeting with Trump, which she described in detail during the process. She said she saw him outside the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan nearly three decades ago and that he asked her to help find a gift for a friend. The two jested as they walked around the store, and he asked her to try on a gray-blue bodysuit from the lingerie section. She refused, telling him to put it on instead. Trump then motioned her to a locker room, where he threw her against the wall, used his weight to pin her down and raped her, according to Carroll.
The episode “made sure I could never have a romantic life again,” said Carroll. (She was able to sue after so much time had passed under the Adult Survivors Act, a New York law that gives victims of abuse a one-time chance to sue the accused.)
To bolster her case, Carroll and her lawyers relied on Trump’s history of disparaging remarks about women. They pointed to the “Access Hollywood” tape, released during the 2016 election, on which he had boasted that he could grab women by the genitals without their consent. “If you’re a star, they’ll let you do it,” Trump said. He stood by those comments during a deposition in the Carroll case.
Carroll’s lawyers argued that Trump’s comments showed he was capable of the assault she had accused him of. The jury, consisting of six men and three women, concluded that the allegations of sexual abuse, but not rape, were true rather than false, and found Trump liable.
Trump denied the allegations. He did not testify and his lawyers did not call any witnesses for his defense in the trial. He previously told reporters that the allegations couldn’t be true because Carroll wasn’t his “type.”
Trump promised to appeal the verdict. “I have absolutely no idea who this woman is,” Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media platform, yesterday. “This verdict is a disgrace – a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time!”
The reactions
Trump is set on appearing live tonight on a CNN town hallwhere he will answer questions from voters.
Many of Trump’s political rivals and opponents, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, have remained silent on the verdict. Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur and author running for president, defended Trump: “I’ll say what everyone thinks in private: If the defendant wasn’t named Donald Trump, would there even be a trial?”
One candidate from 2024 did criticize Trump. “The jury’s verdict should be taken seriously and is another example of Donald Trump’s indefensible behavior,” said Asa Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas and a longtime Trump critic.
The political impact
It is not clear how the ruling will affect Trump’s presidential campaign. His polls against DeSantis, his main potential rival in the Republican primary, improved even after a grand jury in Manhattan indicted Trump 34 crimes of falsifying company information.
But Trump advisers are not making a similar prediction after the Carroll verdict, my colleagues Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan wrote.
Trump will almost certainly face more legal trouble before the 2024 election. The trial in Manhattan could begin as early as January. Trump is also under investigation for his involvement in the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and for his handling of classified documents.
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