A New York jury on Tuesday found former President Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s, but not liable for her alleged rape.
The jury awarded her $5 million in damages for her battery and defamation claims.
Asked on their verdict sheet if Carroll, 79, had proven “by a preponderance of the evidence” that “Mr. Trump raped Ms. Carroll,” the nine-person jury checked the box that said “no.” Asked if Carroll had proven “by a preponderance of the evidence” that “Mr. Trump sexually abused Ms. Carroll,” the jury checked the box that said “yes.” Both allegations were elements of Carroll’s battery claim.
The six men and three women also found Trump had defamed her by calling her claims a “hoax” and “a con job.”
Trump, a 2024 presidential candidate, has consistently denied Carroll’s claims. The jury verdict carries no criminal implications.
The legal standard for liability in the civil case — the preponderance of the evidence — was not as high as in criminal cases. The civil benchmark is that it’s more likely than not that something occurred, while the standard for convictions in criminal cases is proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Carroll sued Trump accusing him of battery and defamation in Manhattan federal court last year, alleging he raped her in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman department store near his Fifth Avenue home in 1995 or 1996. She first went public with the claim in 2019 in her book, “What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal.”
Trump, first as president and then as a private citizen, called her account a fiction that she concocted to boost book sales, and has said the writer is “not my type.” He did not testify in the case, but portions of his videotaped deposition from October were played for the jury.
The verdict was required to be unanimous.
Carroll was her own star witness at the trial, which began April 25. “I’m here because Trump raped me,” she told jurors during her three days on the witness stand.
Carroll said she’d met Trump once before, in the late 1980s, before bumping into him at the entrance of the department store near Trump’s home and office in Trump Tower.
Carroll, an advice columnist for Elle magazine at the time, said Trump told her he was shopping for a lady friend and invited her to come along. “He was very personable,” she said.
She said she’d had a fun time chatting with him as the excursion eventually led to the sixth-floor lingerie department. “He was joshing and pleasant and very funny,” she said, and they each joked about trying on lingerie.
Carroll alleged Trump motioned her toward the dressing room, and when she went in, he “shut the door and shoved me against the wall” and raped her. “I couldn’t see anything was happening, but I could certainly feel that pain,” she said, alleging the attack lasted a “few minutes” before she was able to flee.
Carroll said she called a friend, writer Lisa Birnbach, afterward to tell her what had happened, and Birnbach told her to call the police. Carroll said she told her “no way” because she blamed herself for the attack.
Carroll also said she told another friend, Carol Martin, what happened days later, and Martin urged her not to go to the police for fear the real estate tycoon and his lawyers would “bury her.”Birnbach and Martin both testified on Carroll’s behalf and supported her account.
