The jury convicted Trump of sexual assault and defamation of the writer

Donald Trump suffered one of his heaviest legal defeats on Tuesday and the first firm conviction since he left the White House in early 2021. A jury of six men and three women reached a verdict in just three hours and found Trump guilty of sexually assaulting a writer and journalist elizabeth jean carroll and years later I will slander her, even though she did not find it enough evidence to support a conviction for rape, mainly because of the time that has passed. The New York magnate must pay Carroll five million dollars in damages.

Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a New York department store dressing room in 1996, and of defaming her when he made his accusations publicly in the heat of the night. The MeToo movement in a memoir he published in 2019. At the time, Trump said the writer was a “liar” and that the facts were a “hoax” made up to sell the book and destroy him politically.

special provision

After a 2019 defamation lawsuit against Trump (he called her “crazy” and attacked her physical appearance) that has not yet gone to trial, Carroll sued Trump again in November 2022, nearly 25 years later that the events took place. He did so thanks to a special New York state provision that opened a one-year “legal window” to report sexual abuse that happened decades ago, despite what he prescribed.

Thus, the jury, whose identity was kept secret throughout the trial, reached a unanimous verdict on Tuesday, also in record time, after only two weeks of trial. The jury reached its decision to convict Trump after more than an hour of deliberations Judge Lewis Kaplan on how they should prove the billionaire politician’s guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt” In his closing arguments, Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopino he again tried to convince the jury that the events did not happen and that Carroll’s testimony was “unbelievable.” The former president refused to testify at the trial after his lawyer failed to inform the court of any change in strategy before a deadline set for last Sunday.

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— Team Trump (Trump SMS to 88022) (@TeamTrump) May 9, 2023

A few minutes after the verdict was announced, Donald Trump himself announced his first reaction with a short message written in capital letters on his social network Truth Social. «I have no idea who this woman is.” He said, only to later return to his recurring argument that it all fits “the greatest witch hunt of all time.”

The trial took place in the middle of his campaign to run for a second term in the White House, but he still faces other legal proceedings, such as his recent indictment for bribes paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for keeping up an alleged sexual affair.

The former president’s campaign has already said it plans to appeal the verdictafter questions the impartiality of the justice system in “jurisdictions fully controlled by the Democratic Party”, which he considers “compromised by extremist left-wing politics”.

million compensation

Of the compensation of 5 million dollars (about 4.5 million euros) that the magnate has to pay to the plaintiff, 2 million will be for compensation of “damage” caused by sexual assault and 2.7 million for “reputational damage” caused by defamation. The rest of the money will be for other damages and for Trump’s “reckless” behavior. As it was a civil trial, no prison sentence was imposed.

After the verdict, Judge Kaplan dismissed the jury, who will now be able to reveal their identities, although she advised them to remain silent. “My advice is not to identify yourself”He said.