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   From: nowomr@protonmail.com   
      
   Judge clarifies: Yes, Trump was found to have raped E. Jean Carroll   
   Analysis by Aaron Blake   
   Staff writer   
   July 19, 2023 at 1:15 p.m. EDT   
      
      
   After Donald Trump was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming E.   
   Jean Carroll, his legal team and his defenders lodged a frequent talking   
   point.   
      
   Despite Carroll’s claims that Trump had raped her, they noted, the jury   
   stopped short of saying he committed that particular offense. Instead,   
   jurors opted for a second option: sexual abuse.   
      
   “This was a rape claim, this was a rape case all along, and the jury   
   rejected that — made other findings,” his lawyer, Joe Tacopina, said   
   outside the courthouse.   
      
   A judge has now clarified that this is basically a legal distinction   
   without a real-world difference. He says that what the jury found Trump   
   did was in fact rape, as commonly understood.   
      
   The filing from Judge Lewis A. Kaplan came as Trump’s attorneys have   
   sought a new trial and have argued that the jury’s $5 million verdict   
   against Trump in the civil suit was excessive. The reason, they argue, is   
   that sexual abuse could be as limited as the “groping” of a victim’s   
   breasts.   
      
   Kaplan roundly rejected Trump’s motion Tuesday, calling that argument   
   “entirely unpersuasive.”   
      
   “The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within   
   the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to   
   prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the   
   word ‘rape,’ ” Kaplan wrote.   
      
   He added: “Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear,   
   the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”   
      
   Kaplan said New York’s legal definition of “rape” is “far narrower” than   
   the word is understood in “common modern parlance.”   
      
   The former requires forcible, unconsented-to penetration with one’s penis.   
   But he said that the conduct the jury effectively found Trump liable for —   
   forced digital penetration — meets a more common definition of rape. He   
   cited definitions offered by the American Psychological Association and   
   the Justice Department, which in 2012 expanded its definition of rape to   
   include penetration “with any body part or object.”   
      
   Kaplan also flatly rejected the Trump team’s suggestion that the conduct   
   Trump was found liable for might have been as limited as groping of the   
   breasts.   
      
   The reason? Trump was not accused of that, so the only alleged offense   
   that would have qualified as “sexual abuse” was forced digital   
   penetration. Beyond that, Trump was accused of putting his mouth on   
   Carroll’s mouth and pulling down her tights, which Kaplan noted were not   
   treated as alleged sexual abuse at trial.   
      
   “The jury’s finding of sexual abuse therefore necessarily implies that it   
   found that Mr. Trump forcibly penetrated her vagina,” Kaplan wrote,   
   calling it the “only remaining conclusion.”   
      
   Kaplan also noted that the verdict form did not ask the jury to decide   
   exactly what conduct Trump had committed, and that neither prosecutors nor   
   Trump’s lawyers had requested it to do so.   
      
   “Mr. Trump’s attempt to minimize the sexual abuse finding as perhaps   
   resting on nothing more than groping of Ms. Carroll’s breasts through her   
   clothing is frivolous,” Kaplan wrote.   
      
   He added that the jury clearly found that Trump had “ ‘raped’ her in the   
   sense of that term broader than the New York Penal Law definition.”   
      
   The motion was a part of Trump’s efforts to appeal the verdict against   
   him. That’s an effort that will apparently continue as he faces a separate   
   defamation lawsuit from Carroll, dealing with claims Trump made about her   
   allegations while he was still president.   
      
   But for now, Trump’s effort to push back has led to a rather remarkable   
   clarification that severely undercuts his main talking point. By Aaron   
   Blake Aaron Blake is senior political reporter, writing for The Fix. A   
   Minnesota native, he has also written about politics for the Minneapolis   
   Star Tribune and The Hill newspaper.   
      
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