Federal jurors in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday awarded E. Jean Carroll $5 million in damages after finding former President Donald Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation against the author. The verdict, rendered in civil rather than criminal court, marks the first time that the former president has been found significantly liable in any of the dozens of sexual assault and harassment allegations made against him over the past several decades.
Jurors were unable to find a unanimous consensus that Trump had explicitly raped Carroll based on the legal standard set forth by presiding Judge Lewis Kaplan. Kaplan had instructed the court to consider specific factors such as whether there had been "any penetration of the penis into the vaginal opening," as opposed simply to unwanted sexual contact of any kind, as the jury ultimately determined took place.
Jurors deliberated for approximately three hours before concluding that not only had Trump sexually abused Carroll, but that he had defamed her when he denied assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the late 1990s, instead accusing her of inventing assault to promote her 2019 memoirs and damage him politically. During the trial, Trump's attorney Joe Tacopina repeated that allegation, claiming Carroll would "profit to the tune of millions of dollars" should his client be found liable.
Trump has repeatedly denied that he assaulted Carroll, calling the verdict "a disgrace" in a post on his Truth Social network shortly after the decision was announced. During the trial, jurors were shown video of Trump's deposition in which he insisted Carroll was not his "type," while at the same time mistaking a photo of Carroll for his former wife, Marla Maples.
Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, also showed jurors Trump's now-infamous Access Hollywood footage, in which he bragged about his ability to commit sexual assault as a celebrity. "That's who Donald Trump is. That is how he thinks. And that's what he does," Kaplan argued at one point.
Taking the stand during the trial, Carroll stated unequivocally: "I'm here because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it, he said it didn't happen."
"He lied and shattered my reputation, and I'm here to try to get my life back," she continued. According to communications expert Ashlee Humphreys, who testified on Carroll's behalf during the trial, a full reputational rehabilitation effort could cost nearly $3 million dollars.
Exiting the courthouse after the verdict had been reached, Carroll thanked supporters who had gathered on her behalf, then left without answering any questions.
A statement from Trump's presidential campaign blamed Tuesday's verdict in part on a justice system "compromised by extremist left-wing politics," and vowed to appeal the decision in the future.