New York

For a moment, E Jean Carroll appeared stricken.Not a single member of the jury looked at her as they filed back into court, verdict on her rape case against Donald Trump in hand.The foreperson handed the decision to the court clerk, who read the answer to the first question: “Did Ms Carroll prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Mr Trump raped Ms Carroll?”The six men and three women on the jury answered: No.Carroll’s face fell. Had her three days on the witness stand describing in graphic detail how Trump “rummaged around in her vagina” after pinning her down in a department store changing room failed to convince the jurors after all?Had the 10 other witnesses, including the friends who testified that she told them about the attack when it occurred in 1996, been dismissed as conspiracists against Trump, as his defence claimed?The clerk moved on to the second question: had Trump sexually abused the advice columnist?The jurors unanimously said: Yes.Carroll’s face lit up. She was believed after all. One of her lawyers, Shaun Crowley, beamed next to her. Some of the jurors caught her eye.There were more questions to be answered but Carroll had already won.A group of New Yorkers sat through all the evidence and believed the 79-year-old advice columnist when she described how the former and possibly future president, now 76, lured her into danger with his charm and then, in an instant, became a “monster”.Trump called her a liar and a “nut job” and described her accusations as a hoax. But the jury decided that he was the liar, and much worse. It made the former president pay to the tune of $5m for the sexual assault and for defaming Carroll while denying it happened.The jury’s job done, Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, who subjected Carroll to nearly two days of at times gruelling cross-examination, walked over and shook her hand.Then the former Elle advice columnist turned and headed towards the back of the courtroom.She stopped, on the edge of tears, to hug friends and supporters at the front of the public gallery. Then she walked into a small conference room with her legal team where, finally, they could let out cries of delight.The judge, Lewis Kaplan, gave the jurors several options in reaching a verdict. He said that in order to establish that Trump raped her, Carroll must prove he engaged in sexual intercourse involving any penetration, however slight, of the penis into the vaginal opening. It must also have been the result of “forcible compulsion”.The jurors could not unanimously agree that Trump had indeed forced his penis into Carroll’s vagina, given that she described it as relatively fleeting. But, given that the verdict came back in less than three hours, it appears they had little trouble agreeing the second option on the form, of sexual abuse.The judge said that finding required that Carroll prove Trump subjected her to sexual contact without consent by use of force, and that it was for the purpose of sexual gratification.Tacopina repeatedly tried to shake Carroll’s account in which she described Trump pinning her against a wall with his shoulder, forcibly kissing her, ripping off her tights then pressing his fingers into her vagina. But the former president’s lawyer achieved little more than giving Carroll the opportunity to repeatedly recount the details of the attack.Neither did Tacopina’s attempts to challenge her veracity by questioning why she didn’t scream or call the police play well for his client.At the beginning of the trial, Carroll testified that Trump’s attack destroyed her romantic life. She told the jury she had not had sex in more than quarter of a century because she could barely look at a man she was interested in. And then the former president destroyed her reputation when he called her a liar, leading Elle magazine to fire her after 27 years.“I’m here because Donald Trump raped me and when I wrote about it, he said it didn’t happen,” she said. “He lied and shattered my reputation. I’m here to try and get my life back.”On Tuesday, the jury granted her wish. More

A New York jury found on Tuesday that Donald Trump sexually abused the advice columnist E Jean Carroll in a New York department store changing room 27 years ago.The verdict for the first time legally brands a former US president as a sexual predator. But as it is the result of a civil not criminal case, the only legal sanction Trump will face is financial.In explaining a finding of sexual abuse to the jury, the judge said it had two elements. That Trump subjected Carroll to sexual contact without consent by use of force, and that it was for the purpose of sexual gratification.The jury deliberated for less than three hours. It did not find Trump raped Carroll, but did find him liable for sexual abuse.It awarded about $5m in compensatory and punitive damages: about $2m on the sexual abuse count and close to $3m for defamation, for branding her a liar.Before the verdict in the highly charged case, the judge, Lewis A Kaplan, warned the courtroom: “No shouting. No jumping up and down. No race for the door.”After the verdict, as she was escorted to a car, Carroll said: “We’re very happy.”George Conway, a conservative lawyer and Trump critic who encouraged Carroll to sue, said on Twitter: “God bless E Jean Carroll and congratulations to Roberta Kaplan [Carroll’s attorney] and her team for a job well done.”Trump used his Truth Social platform to say: “I have absolutely no idea who this woman is. The verdict is a disgrace – a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time.”In his deposition, released to the public last week, Trump mistook a picture of Carroll in his company for a picture of his second wife, Marla Maples.On Tuesday, lawyers for Trump issued a statement deriding the case as “bogus” and saying they would appeal “and … ultimately win”.Politically, Trump has capitalised on his legal woes, leading by wide margins in polling regarding the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Nonetheless, he faces mounting legal danger.In New York last month, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 criminal charges of falsifying business records over a hush-money payment to the porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election.Trump looks likely to face criminal charges over attempts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, and is also the target of a federal investigation into his actions around the election, including his incitement of the US Capitol attack.A federal special counsel is also investigating the stashing of secret documents at his Florida estate. In New York, Trump faces a civil suit over his business and tax affairs.In the Carroll case, a jury of three women and six men was persuaded by Carroll’s testimony over three days, describing events in a New York department store changing room in 1996.Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, said he would use Carroll’s own words to disprove her allegation, showing the former Elle magazine columnist conspired with friends to falsely accuse the former president because they “hated” Trump and his politics.But in seven days of testimony, he failed to do either.Carroll testified that the attack left her unable to have a romantic relationship. She said Trump “shattered my reputation” by denying the attack when she went public in 2019, after which Elle sacked her in months. Trump repeatedly called Carroll a liar, including after her first day of testimony when he claimed a “made up SCAM”.Carroll told the trial she ran into Trump as she was leaving the Bergdorf Goodman department store one evening in spring 1996.“He said, ‘I need to buy a gift, come help me,’” she said. “I was delighted.”Carroll said she suggested a handbag or a hat but he wasn’t interested.“He said, ‘I know, lingerie,’” she said. “He led the way to the escalator.”Carroll described herself as “absolutely enchanted” and “delighted” to go to the lingerie department. She told the court Trump “snatched up” a bodysuit and told her to try it on.“I had no intention of putting it on. I said, ‘You put it on, it’s your colour’,” she said.Carroll said Trump suggested they both try it on, and motioned toward the dressing room. She said she thought it was all a joke. The mood changed rapidly.“He immediately shut the door and shoved me up against the wall. He shoved me so hard my head banged. I was extremely confused,” she said.Carroll said the situation “turned absolutely dark”.“He leaned down and pulled down my tights,” she said. “I was pushing him back. It was quite clear I didn’t want anything else to happen.”Speaking quietly and slowly, she said Trump raped her.Carroll said she will always regret going into the dressing room with Trump. She shed tears as she explained that since the rape she found it impossible to even smile at a man she was attracted to, and that it marked the end of her sex life.Two of Carroll’s friends told the trial she confided in them immediately after the attack but swore them to secrecy.Tacopina challenged Carroll during nearly two days of cross-examination. The lawyer focused on her actions during and immediately after the attack, questioning why she didn’t scream or call the police, and why she waited more than 20 years to publicly accuse Trump.But the questioning backfired as Carroll gave confident and credible explanations, saying her inability to give a single cause for not screaming was not evidence she was lying.“One of the reasons women don’t come forward is because they’re always asked, ‘Why didn’t you scream?’ Some women scream. Some women don’t. It keeps women silent,” she said.Carroll said she was too “ashamed” to go to the police, even if that was the advice she gave in her Elle column.“I was born in 1943. I’m a member of the silent generation. Women like me were taught to keep our chins up and to not complain. I would never call the police about something I am ashamed of.”“I was never going to talk about what Donald Trump did,” she said.But she was motivated to speak as the #MeToo movement took off and women across the US related experiences of sexual assault and harassment.Carroll also sued Trump for defamation, having expected him to say they had a consensual encounter, not deny it altogether.“It hit me and it laid me low because I lost my reputation. Nobody looked at me the same. It was gone. Even people who knew me looked at me with pity in their eyes, and the people who had no opinion now thought I was a liar and hated me,” she said.Carroll said she considers Trump “evil” and a “terrible” president but denied bringing the lawsuit because of her political views.“I’m not settling a political score. I’m settling a personal score,” she said.Asked if she regretted accusing Trump, given the consequences, her voice broke.“I regretted this about 100 times but, in the end, being able to get my day in court finally is everything,” she said, through tears. More

Video of Donald Trump’s deposition in his civil rape trial in New York City was released to the public on Friday.The footage, from last October, included a previously reported but never publicly seen exchange in which the former president mistook a picture of his accuser, the writer E Jean Carroll, for a picture of his second wife, Marla Maples.“That’s Marla, yeah,” Trump said. “That’s my wife.”His questioner said: “The person you’ve just pointed to is E Jean Carroll.”Carroll says Trump raped her in a department store in New York in the mid-1990s. She is suing for battery and for defamation, over comments he made while denying the claim, which she made in a book in 2019.In one such comment, repeated in his deposition, Trump said Carroll was not his “type”.On Friday, Renato Mariotti – a former federal prosecutor now a columnist for Politico – pointed to the impact the footage could have in deciding the case.“Trump claims E Jean Carroll isn’t his type,” Mariotti said, “but he mistook a picture of her for a picture of his ex-wife. You don’t need to be a lawyer to understand why his testimony could [affect] the jury’s verdict.”In the clip, Trump called Carroll’s claim “the most ridiculous, disgusting story” which he said was “just made up”. An exchange followed about when Trump became aware of a picture showing him with his first wife, Ivana Trump, Carroll and Carroll’s then husband, John Johnson, at a public event in New York.Shown the picture, Trump said: “I don’t even know who the woman – let’s see, I don’t know who, it’s Marla.”His questioner asked: “You say Marla’s in this photo?”Trump said: “That’s Marla, yeah. That’s my wife.”Asked “which woman are you pointing to”, Trump said: “Here.”His questioner said: “The person you’ve just pointed to is E Jean Carroll.”“Oh I see,” Trump said, adding: “Is that Carroll? Because it’s very blurry”.Trump’s affair with Maples was a tabloid staple in the 1980s, one indelible headline, engineered by Trump, seeing Maples proclaim him the provider of the “Best Sex I’ve Ever Had”.In his deposition, he was asked if he had seen other women while married to his first wife. He answered: “I don’t know.”Trump was also shown repeating, “with as much respect as I can”, his contention that Carroll “is not my type. Not my type in any way, shape or form.”In rally footage shown at his deposition, Trump described Jessica Leeds, who accuses him of sexual assault on a plane in the late 1970s, as “not my first choice, that I can tell you … that would not be my first choice”. This week, Leeds testified for Carroll.Trump told Carroll’s lawyer she “wouldn’t be a choice of mine either, to be honest with you, I hope you’re not insulted, I would not in any circumstances have any interest in you”. He also called the lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, a “political operative” and a “disgrace”.Other footage showed Trump discussing the Access Hollywood, hot-mic footage which surfaced in 2016, briefly threatening to derail Trump’s election campaign.In that tape, Trump said: “I just start kissing them, it’s like a magnet, just kiss, I don’t even wait and when you’re a star they just let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”In his deposition, he said: “Well historically, that’s true with stars.”He was asked: “It’s true you can grab them by the pussy?”He said: “Well, if you look over the last million years, I guess that’s been largely true. Not always, but largely true. Unfortunately or fortunately.”“You consider yourself a star?”“I think you can say that, yeah.”The jury saw the footage this week. Lawyers for Carroll rested on Thursday. For Trump, the lawyer Joe Tacopina said no witnesses would be called and Trump would not testify himself. Trump nonetheless has until 5pm on Sunday to change his mind.Trump faces other forms of legal jeopardy, including investigations of his election subversion, retention of classified records and business and tax affairs.In another New York case, he has pleaded not guilty to 34 criminal counts related to a hush money payment to the porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims an affair Trump denies.Politically, Trump has capitalised on his predicament, alleging persecution by Democrats, enjoying a flood of donations and surging to commanding leads in Republican primary polling. More

A close friend of E Jean Carroll has told a New York jury that she received a distressed call from the advice columnist within minutes of Donald Trump allegedly raping her.Lisa Birnbach testified at Carroll’s civil action against the former president on Tuesday that she was feeding her children at home when Carroll called “breathless, hyperventilating, emotional” in the spring of 1996.“She said: ‘Lisa, you’re not going to believe what happened to me’,” she said.Birnbach, a magazine writer and editor, described Carroll giving a brief description of meeting Trump at the entrance to the luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman and how they decided to shop together. Birnbach said that Carroll then described Trump pinning her to a changing room wall and assaulting her.“E Jean said to me many times: ‘He pulled down my tights, he pulled down my tights,’ almost like she couldn’t believe it had just happened to her,” she said.Birnbach said Carroll then described Trump forcing first his fingers and then his penis into her vagina.“As soon as she said that, even though I knew my children didn’t know the word, I ducked out of the room and I whispered: ‘E Jean, he raped you, you should go to the police’. She said: ‘No, no I don’t want to go to the police.’ I said: ‘He raped you. I’ll take you to the police,’” Birnbach recounted.Birnbach said that Carroll remained adamant.“She said: ‘promise me you will never speak of this again and promise me you will tell no one,’” Birnbach testified. “And I promised both of those things.”Carroll, 79, is suing Trump for battery for allegedly raping her in a New York department store changing room in 1996, and for defamation for calling her a liar after she went public about the alleged assault in 2019.Birnbach is one of two women expected to testify that the advice columnist told them about the alleged assault shortly after it occurred.Birnbach said she was stunned when Carroll described going into the dressing room with Trump.“I was surprised that she did that,” Birnbach said. “I thought it was kind of nutty.”But Birnbach added that she did not think at the time that Trump was dangerous.One of the questions that has hung over the trial was why Carroll chose to call Birnbach immediately after the alleged assault when the two were no more than “work friends”, although they now describe themselves as very close.Birnbach said she believes it was because a few months earlier she had visited Trump to write an article about his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.Birnbach said she met Trump at a party in 1995, and he asked if she would be interested in seeing Mar-a-Lago.“He called me about once a month for five or six months to make sure I still wanted to write the article,” she said.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTrump flew Birnbach down on his private jet in January 1996, and she stayed two nights at the estate while he gave her a personal tour. The article was published the following month.“I believe E Jean called me, of all her friends and acquaintances, because she knew I had just been at Mar-a-Lago,” she said.Another of Carroll’s friends, Carol Martin, is also expected to testify that the advice columnist told her about the alleged rape at the time. Carroll has said that Martin advised her not to go to the police because Trump was a powerful businessman. Carroll said that was the advice she wanted to hear at the time.Birnbach said she never spoke to Carroll about the assault again until the advice columnist went public with her allegations against Trump in 2019.“It was her life, her story, not my story. She clearly didn’t want to tell anyone what happened and I honoured that,” she said.Birnbach said she “worked not to think about it”.“I buried it,” she said. “As life went on, it was easier not to think about it.”Birnbach acknowledged that she has been a fierce and vocal opponent of Trump over the years, calling him an “infection”, a “madman”, a “Russian agent”, and a “malignant sociopath”. She acknowledged feeling “hatred” for the former president.Asked why she was testifying, Birnbach said: “I’m here because I’m her friend and I want the world to know she’s telling the truth.”The trial continues.
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html. More