A jury in New York on Tuesday found former US President Donald Trump guilty of sexually assaulting former journalist E. Jean Carroll in a case dating back to the 1990s.
The nine jurors in the civil case in which the columnist is seeking damages from the former White House tenant have acquitted him of the rape charge the victim accused him of. However, they still found him guilty of libel.
According to The New York Times and CNN, Trump must pay $ 5 million (4.55 million euros) in compensation to the victim.
The decision was announced at 3 p.m. (8 p.m. in Lisbon) after the jurors deliberated in less than three hours.
Carroll, one of more than a dozen women who have accused Trump of sexual assault or harassment, came forward in 2019 alleging that the Republican tycoon raped her in a dressing room at a Manhattan store in 1996.
Trump, 76, withdrew from the civil process, but said he never met Carroll, 79, at the store and did not know her.
The former US president also accused her of being a “madman” who made up “a fraudulent and false story” to sell a memoir.
Carroll asked for unspecified monetary damages and a retraction of Trump’s statements he said were defamatory.
The trial saw allegations of Trump’s inappropriate behavior with women and the playback of the “Access Hollywood” video, in which Trump bragged about grabbing women’s genitals without asking permission.
Natasha Stoynoff, a former People magazine writer, tearfully testified that Trump forcibly kissed her against her will while showing her his Mar-a-Lago estate shortly after Christmas 2005 for an article about his first wedding anniversary to his third wife, Melania.
Prior to the trial, Trump’s lawyers couldn’t prevent jurors from watching the “Access Hollywood” video and listening to Stoynoff, who said he had told few people about the alleged incident at the time, but decided to go public after seeing the video and Trump’s subsequent statements. denials in a debate in 2016.
Trump has denied ever trying to kiss Stoynoff.
Stoynoff’s testimony came a day after another woman, former stockbroker Jessica Leeds, testified that Trump groped her breasts and tried to raise her skirt while they sat side by side on a late-night airline flight in the 1970s.
Carroll kept the accusations against Trump a secret for 17 years, telling only two close friends before making them public in a 2019 memoir.
Trump’s lawyers attacked Carroll’s credibility through exhaustive cross-examination, questioning why he didn’t scream for help during the alleged assault and why he never went to the police.
A psychologist who testified on Carroll’s behalf said it was common for rape victims to remain silent and blame themselves.
Source: DN
