Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump rides a golf cart at Trump International Golf Links course, in Doonbeg, Ireland May 4, 2023.
Damien Storan | Reuters
A New York federal jury found former President Donald Trump liable on Tuesday for sexually abusing and forcibly touching the writer E. Jean Carroll at a department store in the 1990s, and for defaming her last fall when he denied her claim.
The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
The verdict in the civil trial came after less than three hours of deliberations in U.S. District Court in lower Manhattan. The jury did not find Trump liable for rape, as Carroll had also alleged.
The nine-member panel started discussing potential verdicts in the case at 11:50 a.m. ET after Judge Lewis Kaplan gave the panel final instructions and a 10-question verdict form.
E. Jean Carroll, former U.S. President Donald Trump rape accuser, arrives at Manhattan Federal Court for the continuation of the civil case, in New York City, May 9, 2023.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Carroll, 79, claimed in her lawsuit that Trump raped her in a dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman store in the mid-1990s.
Trump cannot be prosecuted for the alleged rape because the statute of limitations for such a crime has long since passed.
But Carroll sued him with a civil claim of battery under a New York state law enacted in late 2022 that opened a one-year window for lawsuits alleging sexual assaults would otherwise be barred by the statute of limitations.
Carroll also claimed that Trump defamed her last fall when he said she had made up her account of being raped.
Trump, 76, called the allegations “a complete con job,” and said that she was not his “type.”
Despite that claim, Trump mistook Carroll for his second wife Marla Maples in a photo showing him and Carroll together in the 1980s.
Former Elle magazine advice columnist E. Jean Carroll watches as a former U.S. president Donald Trump’s video deposition is played in court during a civil trial where Carroll accuses the former U.S. president in a civil lawsuit of raping her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s, and of defamation, in New York, U.S., May 4, 2023 in this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
Trump, who leads early polls for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, did not testify during the trial.
But portions of his deposition taken last fall by Carroll’s lawyer were played for jurors during the trial, and during closing arguments on Monday.
Carroll took the witness stand. So did two women who testified she had told them right after the alleged incident that Trump had raped her.
Two other women testified that Trump had kissed and groped them without their consent in incidents that occurred years apart.
Read: Trump jury verdict form
This is breaking news. Check back for updates.
More Stories
US ambassador to Japan visits southern islands at the forefront of China tension – Times of India
Singapore to resume flying F-16 jets after crash this month – Times of India
Nearly 10,000 evacuated in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region: Governor – Times of India