The long and humiliating path to ignominy for Donald Trump continued when a jury in New York found the twice-impeached and presently criminally indicted former president liable for sexually assaulting author E. Jean Carroll.
The jury, which awarded Carroll $5 million in damages, also deemed Trump liable for defaming the writer when he publicly discredited her claims.
In a minor victory for Trump, the jury did not determine that he had raped Carroll.
The trial lasted approximately one week in Manhattan, where a grand jury indicted Trump last month on more than thirty criminal counts related to alleged hush money payments he made to cover up a sexual relationship with porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump was the first former president to be criminally indicted.
Congress impeached Trump twice during his presidency, an unprecedented disgrace in American history. Carroll, a well-known columnist, alleged that Trump raped her in the mid-1990s at the Bergdorf Goodman department store.
Trump slandered Carroll by denying the allegation, indicating she fabricated it to boost book sales and claiming she was not his type.
Trump has denied all the allegations.
Under the New York Adult Survivors Act, enacted in May 2022, survivors of sexual offenses may file a civil complaint against a perpetrator for damages even if the statute of limitations has expired, so long as they can also demonstrate that the offense qualifies as a sex crime.
Carroll’s legal team presented eleven witnesses in seven trial days, including the author herself. Earlier in the trial, the jury viewed portions of Trump’s October 2017 videotaped deposition for this case.
Trump vehemently denied Carroll’s rape allegations, claiming they were baseless and that he did not know Carroll. In addition, he asserted that Carroll was not his type and had the right to disparage women who falsely accused him.
During the trial, former news anchor Carol Martin testified that Carroll confided in her immediately following the incident. Martin informed the jury that the two friends had finished recording their respective programs and that Carroll had requested to visit Martin’s home close to the studio.
Martin stated that Carroll was “agitated” during their hour-long conversation in her kitchen. Carroll’s “effect was anxious and agitated, but she can be that way on occasion, so it wasn’t all that unusual, but what she was saying initially made no sense.”
Martin recalled that Carroll began her story by saying, “You won’t believe what happened to me the other night.” Martin reported that Carroll told her she did not wish to report the incident and urged her to remain silent.
However, Martin stated that she regretted advising her friend and colleague not to report the incident, although Carroll had disclosed the alleged rape to another associate.
Martin testified, “I am not proud; this is what I told her. I’m here because I want to reiterate and remember what my friend E. Jean Carroll told me 27 years ago. I believed it then, and I believe it today.”
Stacy M. Brown is the NNPA Newswire national senior correspondent.
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