Donald Trump was found liable Tuesday in the civil case filed by author E. Jean Carroll, who had sued the former president for battery and defamation over his public denials that he raped her at a department store in 1996. The federal jury ordered the former president to pay Carroll $5 million.
The nine-person jury, six men and three women, got the case Tuesday morning, and returned its verdict a few hours later, finding that Trump more likely than not sexually assaulted Carroll and defamed her years later. Trump gave a sworn deposition but did not appear to testify live in the Manhattan federal courtroom, and his legal team did not offer a defense.
Carroll and 10 other witnesses testified against Trump. The author claimed that Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in 1996, then defamed when he denied it in a social media post late last year. Trump has denied ever meeting Carroll, and made the comment that she wasn’t his “type” – though he appeared to mistake a photo of Carroll for ex-wife Marla Maples in his deposition.
Though the statute of limitations on rape has long since passed, Carroll used a state bill which opened an amnesty window to prosecute or sue for sexual assault allegations. She chose a civil trial, which has a lower “preponderance of evidence” standard than criminal matters, which require proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
In upholding Carroll’s defamation claim, the jury found that her legal team showed a preponderance of evidence that Trump assaulted Carroll; that he knew a statement he published about her was false; and that he made the statement with “actual malice,” or intent to damage her reputation.
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Wrap