- The Washington Times - Tuesday, May 9, 2023

A federal jury in New York found former President Donald Trump liable for sexual battery and defamation of writer E. Jean Carroll and ordered him to pay $5 million, but the same jury cleared him of rape.

The verdict Tuesday is the latest legal blow to Mr. Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. He is also facing felony criminal charges in New York and two federal investigations.

Mr. Trump’s attorneys said they will appeal the finding that he is liable for assault and defamation.

In a win for Mr. Trump, the jury of six men and three women didn’t believe Ms. Carroll’s story that he raped her in a dressing room at the ritzy Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s. That was the most severe allegation against Mr. Trump in the civil trial.

“I’m here because Trump raped me,” Ms. Carroll told jurors during her three days on the witness stand.

Mr. Trump didn’t testify, and his attorneys didn’t call any witnesses. They said challenging Ms. Carroll’s story was their defense.

Mr. Trump was ordered to pay Ms. Carroll roughly $5 million in damages — about $2 million for the assault and about $3 million for defamation. The jury said he defamed Ms. Carroll by denying her rape claim and calling the allegations “a complete con job,” among other things.

The verdicts gave each side enough to claim victory. Ms. Carroll praised it as a win that restores her reputation. Mr. Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina said the former president was not branded a rapist.

“We’re, in one sense, gratified, and I know some people in this camp are very happy that the rape claim was rejected,” he said.

Ms. Carroll said in a statement that the jury gave “my life back.”

“Today, the world finally knows the truth. This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed,” she said, adding that she pursued the lawsuit to “clear her name.”

Her attorney Roberta Kaplan said in a statement: “No one is above the law, not even a former President of the United States.”

Moments after the verdict, Mr. Trump lashed out at Ms. Carroll and the jury on Truth Social.

“I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS. THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE — A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!” he wrote in screaming capital letters.

“WHAT ELSE CAN YOU EXPECT FROM A TRUMP HATING, CLINTON APPOINTED JUDGE, WHO WENT OUT OF HIS WAY TO MAKE SURE THAT THE RESULT WAS AS NEGATIVE AS IT COULD POSSIBLY BE, SPEAKING TO, AND IN CONTROL OF, A JURY FROM AN ANTI-TRUMP AREA WHICH IS PROBABLY THE WORST PLACE IN THE U.S. FOR ME TO GET A FAIR ‘TRIAL,’” he wrote.

Mr. Tacopina insisted that there are “plenty of issues to appeal,” including U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan’s decision to allow the jury to hear the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape in which Mr. Trump bragged that he could grab women’s genitals without consent because he is a “star.”

The verdict marks Mr. Trump as the first former president found liable by a jury for sexual misconduct. It cast a cloud over Mr. Trump a day before he is scheduled to headline a CNN town-hall-style event in Manchester, New Hampshire. It also raises questions about the viability of his candidacy in 2024, though most polls show him with a double-digit lead over other Republican candidates.

Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, told reporters that the verdict hurts Mr. Trump with voters.

“The fact is, I do not think he could win the presidency,” he said. “So you have to appeal to a broader spectrum of people, and he just never seems to do that.”

Former Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, once known as a Trump acolyte, said the verdict should give the party pause about his White House aspirations.

“GOP CANNOT afford REPEAT sexual predator offender as 2024 president nominee. Offends voters badly,” Mr. Brooks, a Republican, said on Twitter. “America needs strongest GOP candidate. Trump ain’t it. Character matters.”

Former Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, a 2024 Republican presidential contender, called the decision “another example of the indefensible behavior of Donald Trump.”

A Trump campaign spokesperson said the case wouldn’t derail the former president’s reelection campaign.

“Make no mistake, this entire bogus case is a political endeavor targeting President Trump because he is now an overwhelming front-runner to be once again elected President of the United States,” the campaign said in a statement. “This case will be appealed, and we will ultimately win.”

In March, Mr. Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money payment in 2016 to two adult entertainers who claimed to have had extramarital affairs with Mr. Trump years earlier.

Mr. Trump denied having romantic relationships with the women: adult film star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Mr. Trump is also under federal investigation for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and for retaining classified government documents when he left the White House.

He is also staring down a possible indictment by a Georgia grand jury over his attempts to get state officials to overturn President Biden’s 2020 victory in that state.

The New York Attorney General’s office filed a civil lawsuit against the Trump Organization in September, alleging it fraudulently inflated the value of his assets to secure more favorable loans.

Mr. Trump has steadfastly denied her claims.

Ms. Carroll, an advice columnist for Elle magazine at the time, said Mr. Trump ran into her at the swanky department store. She agreed to help Mr. Trump find a gift for a lady friend, and the two exchanged flirty banter as they wandered through the store.

When they reached the sixth floor, the two playfully joked about a see-through negligee, she said. Then Mr. Trump took her into a dressing room, where he pinned her against the wall and penetrated her with his fingers and later his penis, she said.

During the trial, Ms. Carroll said she could “still the feel the pain” of his fingers inside her.

She first went public with the claim in her 2019 memoir “What Do We Need Man For? A Modest Proposal.”

Mr. Trump said she made up the whole incident to boost book sales, adding that Ms. Carroll is “not my type.” Her attorneys argued that Mr. Trump’s denials amounted to defamation and attacks on her character.

Two friends of Ms. Carroll, Lisa Birnbach and Carol Marin, told the court that she told them after the incident that Mr. Trump had raped her. Another two women testified that Mr. Trump had kissed and groped them without their consent in incidents that occurred years apart.

Mr. Tacopina told jurors that Ms. Carroll’s claims were “unbelievable.”

“She is doing this for money, political reasons and status, and in doing so, she is minimizing true rape victims and destroying their pain and capitalizing on them,” he said.

Mr. Tacopina also grilled Ms. Carroll on her politics and old social media posts in which she declared herself a “massive” fan of Mr. Trump’s show “The Apprentice.”

“I was a big fan of the show. Very impressed by it,” she testified.

Tuesday’s verdict might not be the last word in the legal drama over whether Mr. Trump defamed Mrs. Carroll.

An earlier lawsuit filed against Mr. Trump over allegedly defamatory comments he made about her while president is still pending before Judge Kaplan in New York. It had been stalled in a Washington federal appeals court over claims that Mr. Trump was immune from liability because he was president at the time of the comments.

The case was sent back to Judge Kaplan last month.

• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.

• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.

• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.

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