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    They don't like rapists in prison.   
      
      
   Trump Rape Lawsuit Jury Finds Trump Liable for Sexual Abuse and Defamation   
      
   A jury of six men and three women awarded the writer E. Jean Carroll $5   
   million in damages. Donald J. Trump called the verdict a “disgrace.”   
   May 9, 2023   
      
   Image   
   E. Jean Carroll, center, leaving court in New York on Tuesday   
   afternoon.Credit...Brittainy Newman for The New York Times   
   Pinned   
      
   Benjamin WeiserLola Fadulu and Kate Christobek   
   Donald Trump Sexually Abused and Defamed E. Jean Carroll, Jury Finds   
   Video   
   Jury Finds Trump Liable, Awarding E. Jean Carroll $5 Million   
   0:40   
   Video player loading   
   The former writer left the Manhattan courthouse smiling after a jury found   
   that Donald Trump had sexually abused and defamed her. Mr. Trump’s lawyer   
   said he intended to appeal.CreditCredit...Brittainy Newman for The New York   
   Times   
      
   A Manhattan jury on Tuesday found former President Donald J. Trump liable   
   for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll and awarded her $5   
   million in damages. More than a dozen women have accused Mr. Trump of   
   sexual misconduct over the years, but this is the only allegation to be   
   affirmed by a jury.   
      
   In the civil case, the federal jury of six men and three women found that   
   Ms. Carroll, 79, a former magazine writer, had sufficiently proved that Mr.   
   Trump sexually abused her nearly 30 years ago in a dressing room of the   
   Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan. The jury did not, however,   
   find he had raped her, as she had long claimed.   
      
   The jury, in returning the verdict shortly before 3 p.m., also found that   
   Mr. Trump, who is running to regain the presidency, defamed Ms. Carroll in   
   October when he posted a statement on his Truth Social platform calling her   
   case “a complete con job” and “a Hoax and a lie.” His lawyer said he   
   intended to appeal.   
      
   Mr. Trump’s lawyers called no witnesses, and he never appeared at the trial   
   to hear Ms. Carroll, who had sued him last year, deliver visceral testimony   
   about the attack she said had ended her romantic life forever.   
   Image   
   Donald Trump at a lectern.   
   Donald Trump, who avoided the trial, continued to say he did not know Ms.   
   Carroll. Credit...Sophie Park for The New York Times   
      
   On Tuesday, Ms. Carroll nodded along as a court clerk read the verdict   
   aloud, her nod growing more pronounced as the clerk said Mr. Trump was   
   liable for defamation. She walked out of the courthouse grinning from ear   
   to ear, holding hands with her lawyer, Roberta A. Kaplan. A woman yelled to   
   Ms. Carroll, “You’re so brave and beautiful.” Ms. Carroll replied, “Thank   
   you, thank you so much.”   
      
   In a later statement, she said: “I filed this lawsuit against Donald Trump   
   to clear my name and to get my life back. Today, the world finally knows   
   the truth. This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has   
   suffered because she was not believed.”   
      
   For decades, Mr. Trump had reveled in projecting the image of a man   
   irresistible to women, engineering tabloid headlines like “Best Sex I’ve   
   Ever Had,” appearing in the introduction of a 1999 Playboy magazine   
   centerfold video and bragging in an exchange caught on video about how, as   
   a celebrity, he could grab women’s genitals with impunity. Now the jury has   
   labeled him not a Lothario but an abuser.   
      
   Its unanimous verdict came after just under three hours of deliberation.   
   The findings are civil, not criminal, meaning Mr. Trump has not been   
   convicted of any crime and faces no prison time.   
   Image   
   E. Jean Carroll leaves court in her sunglasses.   
   “Today, the world finally knows the truth,” Ms. Carroll said after court.   
   “This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered   
   because she was not believed.”Credit...Brittainy Newman for The New York   
   Times   
      
   In a Truth Social post after the verdict, Mr. Trump continued to insist   
   that he did not know Ms. Carroll: “I have absolutely no idea who this woman   
   is. This verdict is a disgrace — a continuation of the greatest witch hunt   
   of all time!”   
      
   His lawyer Joseph Tacopina said outside the courthouse that the case would   
   be appealed. He also defended Mr. Trump’s absence from the courtroom and   
   his decision not to testify in his own defense.   
      
   “This was a circus atmosphere, and having him be here would be more of a   
   circus,” Mr. Tacopina said.   
      
   He noted that Mr. Trump had denied Ms. Carroll’s allegation in a video   
   deposition that her lawyers played for the jury. He also said Ms. Carroll’s   
   lawyers should never have been allowed to play the “Access Hollywood”   
   recording for the jury, in which Mr. Trump was captured boasting in vulgar   
   terms about grabbing women by the genitals.   
      
   And he complained about the decision by the judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, to have   
   an anonymous jury hear the case, with their names kept even from the   
   lawyers.   
      
   “There were things that happened in this case that were beyond the pale,”   
   said Mr. Tacopina, who also complained about what he said was “bias   
   displayed by the court.”   
      
   Mr. Tacopina clashed with Judge Kaplan at times and even filed a motion   
   seeking a mistrial based on “pervasive, unfair and prejudicial rulings”   
   based in part on what he described as the judge’s improperly sustaining   
   objections by Ms. Carroll’s lawyers, who argued that his questions were   
   argumentative.   
      
   At one point, Judge Kaplan quoted the definition of “an argumentative   
   question” from Black’s Law Dictionary, reading it aloud to Mr. Tacopina.   
   Image   
   Joseph Tacopina gesticulates to reporters.   
   Joseph Tacopina, Mr. Trump’s lawyer, clashed frequently with the judge, and   
   said the proceedings were biased against his client. Credit...Brittainy   
   Newman for The New York Times   
      
   During his instructions to the jury on Tuesday, the judge explained their   
   three options for finding Mr. Trump liable for battery, meaning an assault   
   on Ms. Carroll: that he had raped her, sexually abused her or forcibly   
   touched her. A unanimous vote would affirm that Ms. Carroll had proven that   
   it was more likely than not to be true that he had committed an offense,   
   the judge explained.   
      
   In a criminal case, when jurors are asked to assess guilt, they must meet   
   the much higher standard of beyond a reasonable doubt.   
   Thumbnail of page 1   
   Read the Completed Jury Verdict Form in the Trump-Carroll Case   
      
   A jury, which held former President Donald J. Trump liable on Tuesday for   
   the sexual abuse and defamation of E. Jean Carroll and awarded her $5   
   million, completed a verdict form that spelled out possible findings.   
   Read Document 3 pages   
      
   It was not clear why jurors chose the lesser offense of abuse over rape.   
   Sexual abuse is defined in New York as subjecting a person to sexual   
   contact without consent. Rape is defined under state law as sexual   
      
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