Former President Donald Trump was found liable by a federal jury in New York on Tuesday for sexual abusing and physically touching the author E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s at a department store and for defaming her last fall when he disputed her claim. Trump was ordered by the jury, made up of three women and six men, to pay Carroll $5 million in both punitive and compensatory damages.
The civil trial verdict was reached after less than three hours of deliberations in lower Manhattan’s U.S. District Court. The jury did not find Trump liable for the rape Carroll claimed he committed.
“I have absolutely no idea who this woman is. This verdict is a disgrace,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media site Truth Social.
Judge Kaplan ordered all of the jurors to maintain their anonymity because anyone perceived as an opponent by Mr. Trump and his supporters could face threats, intimidation, or outright violence.
Carroll maintained in her testimony that she unexpectedly ran into Trump at Bergdorf Goodman, where he knew her as a columnist. She testified that he ushered her into a changing room and sexually abused her there after they found themselves in the store’s lingerie section. Carroll reported to two of her friends—Lisa Birnbach and Carol Marin—shortly after the alleged encounter that Trump had raped her. They both testified in court, backing up Caroll’s claims. Two additional women claimed that Trump had inappropriately kissed and touched them in separate incidents over a period of years.
