$5 million in damages from Trump
—ANISHA KOHLI
AWARDED
ON MAY 9, A MANHATTAN JURY FOUND FORMER President Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages after a two-week civil trial in which she testified that Trump sexually assaulted her over 25 years ago in a New York department store, and then defamed her after she spoke out about it in 2019.
A 79-year-old former Elle magazine columnist, Carroll is one of over 20 women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct since the 1980s. Trump, 76, has denied all allegations. This is the first such claim that has been tried before a jury.
“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. I’m here to try to get my life back,” Carroll said in court. Carroll has said that the attention she received after speaking out and Trump’s insults inspired intense backlash on social media and cost her her job at Elle.
The jury checked “sexual abuse” over “rape” on the verdict form. Because it was a civil case, Trump was not convicted of a crime and faces no prison time. But it follows another history-making turn for Trump, who in April became the first former President to be criminally indicted in a separate case related to allegedly falsifying business records over hush-money payments to a porn star.
After the verdict in the Carroll case, Trump, who is running for President again, posted on his social media platform, Truth Social: “This verdict is a disgrace—a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time.” He said he would appeal the ruling. In her own stateme
