(SaveAmericaNews.org) – A jury judged Donald Trump responsible for sexually harassing advice writer E. Jean Carroll in 1996 on Tuesday, awarding her $5 million in a verdict that could follow the former president as he runs for reelection.
The decision was delivered in a federal courtroom in New York City on the first day of the jury’s deliberations. The jury did not believe Carroll’s allegations of being raped, but Trump was found guilty of abusing Carroll sexually.
Before the jury deliberated Carroll’s claims of violence and defamation around noon, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan had read legal instructions to the nine-person jury hours earlier.
Trump, who was not present at the trial, has maintained that he neither knew Carroll nor committed any sexual assault on her. Right after the decision, he reaffirmed the assertion on Truth Social.
“I have no idea who this woman is at all. THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE – A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!”
Shortly after the decision, he and his legal team released the following statement:
“The Democratic Party’s never-ending witch hunt of President Trump reached a new low today. Extreme left-wing politics have undermined our country’s legal system in areas entirely under Democratic Party control. … this entire phony case is a political ploy aimed at President Trump, who is currently the clear favorite to win reelection to the office of President of the United States.”
The group criticized the decision as another attempt to discredit Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nominee in 2024. The Trump campaign will appeal.
Donald Trump was just found found “liable” of sexual abuse, “not liable” of rape in the E. Jean Carroll civil case!!!
The same lady who said “rape is sexy” on CNN!!!
THIS WAS A WITCH HUNT! pic.twitter.com/wIZ2exmTeg
— Graham Allen (@GrahamAllen_1) May 9, 2023
The method of determining decisions.
According to Kaplan’s instructions to the jury, the first question on the judgment form asked them to indicate if they believed there was a more than 50% possibility that Trump had violated Carroll in a store changing room.
They would consider whether to award compensatory and punitive damages if they replied in the affirmative.
Suppose they said “no” to the rape question. In that case, they might assess whether Trump had sexual contact with the woman without her permission or forced touching to humiliate her or satiate his sexual urge.
A jury in a civil lawsuit has found former President Donald Trump sexually abused a magazine columnist in a New York department store in the 1990s
But Mr Trump was found not liable for raping E Jean Carrollhttps://t.co/D0aNJOtk3H pic.twitter.com/EuABNYwtrb
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 9, 2023
If the response to either of those inquiries is yes, they will determine whether or not damages are necessary.
Regarding defamation charges resulting from a tweet Trump posted in October, Kaplan said that jurors should be held to a higher legal standard, which is clear and persuasive evidence.
He declared they would have to concur that it was “highly probable” that Trump’s claim was untrue, made with the reckless disdain for Carroll’s rights and malicious purpose to cause harm.
Trump updated his social media post while claiming he awaited the jury’s verdict “on a False Accusation.” Trump claimed he was “not allowed to speak or defend myself, even as hard-nosed reporters scream questions about this case at me.”
Trump said he won’t talk until after the trial “but will appeal the Unconstitutional silencing of me… no matter the outcome!”
Even though Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, stated on Thursday that his client would not testify, Trump never showed up for the trial, which is in its third week. Trump declined an invitation to testify, which the judge continued through the weekend.
In his closing remarks to the jury on Monday, Tacopina argued that Carroll’s account is too unbelievable to be taken seriously.
He claimed she fabricated it to boost sales of a 2019 memoir containing her first-ever public disclosure of her allegations and to denigrate Trump for political purposes.
Columnist E. Jean Carroll was spotted leaving a Manhattan courthouse after a jury found Donald Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation. https://t.co/3ipo175Wxp pic.twitter.com/ds6Im0gFYV
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 9, 2023
Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s lawyer, cited passages from Trump’s October deposition and his infamous remarks from a 2005 “Access Hollywood” video in which he claimed that famous people may grab women between the legs without being asked.
Kaplan remarked, “He didn’t even bother to show up here in person.” She said most of what he said during his deposition and in public interviews “actually supports our side of the case.”
She asserted that Donald Trump “is a witness against himself in a very real sense.” He is aware of what he did. He is aware that he violated E. Jean Carroll’s sexual integrity.”
In court, Carroll, 79, claimed she accidentally met Trump at the Bergdorf Goodman shop next to Trump Tower. She claimed that before Trump started acting violently in a changing room, they were having a pleasant conversation in which they made fun of each other for trying on some underwear.
Carroll can’t even remember the date of her interaction with Trump, according to Tacopina, who told the jury there was no justification for calling him a witness.
He informed the jury, “After hearing about a 2012 “Law and Order” episode in which a woman is raped in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman store’s lingerie department, Carroll made up her accusations.”
He claimed of Carroll, “They based their covert plan on an episode of one of the most well-liked shows on television.”
Several years before the “Law and Order” episode aired, two of Carroll’s friends testified that she told them about the contact with Trump shortly after it occurred.
Donald Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina, in response to the verdict in the E. Jean Carroll lawsuit, called the trial a “circus atmosphere.”
A jury found the former president liable Tuesday for sexually abusing the advice columnist in 1996. https://t.co/ygkdSolgvD pic.twitter.com/3Q5zGF7ZcK
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 9, 2023
According to Trump, his legal team will immediately file an appeal on grounds of “unconstitutional silencing.”
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