The court ruled that Donald Trump was liable for sexually abusing a former US magazine columnist.
New York:
A US jury on Tuesday found Donald Trump liable for sexually assaulting and defaming a former US magazine columnist and ordered the former president to pay $5 million in damages.
Nine jurors dismissed E. Jean Carroll’s rape charge but upheld her other complaints in a closely watched civilian trial after less than three hours of deliberations.
The verdict in the trial marks the first time Trump has faced legal consequences over allegations of sexual misconduct dating back decades and involving a dozen women.
Carroll, 79, sued Trump last year, alleging he raped her in a changing room at the luxury Bergdorf Goodman store on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue in 1996.
The former columnist for Elle magazine also claimed that Trump called her a “total workaholic” after she went public with the allegation in 2019.
Trump, 76, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in next year’s presidential election, has called her case a “fraud” and a “lie”.
Carroll told a two-week civil trial that the alleged assault left her feeling “ashamed” and unable to have a romantic relationship.
She said it took her more than 20 years to go public because she was “intimidated” by Trump.
Her lawyers called to testify two other women who testified that Trump sexually assaulted them decades ago.
Former businesswoman Jessica Leeds told a Manhattan federal court that Trump groped her in the business class section of a flight in the United States in the 1970s.
Journalist Natasha Stoynoff said that Trump kissed her without her consent in 2005 during an interview at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Nearly a dozen women accused Trump of sexual misconduct ahead of the 2016 election that sent him to the White House.
He has denied all the charges and has not been prosecuted on any of them. Carroll’s trial cannot lead to a criminal case.
– Porn star affair –
Trump did not testify during the proceedings, nor did his defense team call any witnesses.
A video of his swearing in October was shown to the jury. In it, Trump called Carroll a “liar” and a “really sick person”.
His lawyers argued that Carroll invented the allegation “for money, for political reasons and for status”.
She filed her suit under a New York law that gave victims of sexual assault a one-year window to sue decades after their alleged abusers attacked them.
The jury was tasked with deciding whether Carroll’s attorneys proved her case by a preponderance of the evidence, a lower burden than in criminal trials that require proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
The case was one of several legal challenges facing Trump that threaten to complicate his bid to regain the presidency.
Last month, he pleaded not guilty to a criminal count related to secretly paying a porn star just before the 2016 election.
Trump is also being investigated for his efforts to reverse a 2020 election loss in the southern state of Georgia, his alleged mishandling of classified documents taken from the White House and his involvement in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters . ,
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)