Shortly after 3 p.m. on Tuesday, May 9, the Manhattan federal jury delivered its verdict after deliberating for approximately 2.5 hours.
Jurors found Trump responsible for the assault based on Carroll’s sexual assault allegations as well as defamation charges.
However, the jury did not find Trump responsible for the alleged rape.
Carroll was awarded $5 million in total damages, including $2.7 million in defamation claims and $2 million in battery claims.
She was seen smiling as she left the courthouse after the verdict, but did not address the crowd of reporters gathered outside.
Carroll, 79, who lives in Orange County’s Hudson Valley, made headlines in June 2019 when she claimed in a New York magazine cover story that Trump had been killed by Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s. The locker room raped her.
Trump has repeatedly denied the allegations, saying he never met Carroll, that she was “completely lying” to sell her memoir and that she was “not my type.”
The comments, made during Trump’s presidency in 2019, prompted Carroll to sue him for defamation.
“I’m here because Donald Trump raped me and when I wrote about it he said it didn’t happen,” The Washington Post quoted Carroll on the witness stand as saying“He lied and ruined my reputation and I’m here to get my life back.”
Carroll went on to describe to jurors how she was “delighted” to meet Trump at Bergdorf Goodman, claiming she followed him to the lingerie section to help him pick out a gift for another woman.
She then testified that she accompanied Trump into the dressing room, where she claimed he forcibly inserted his finger inside her.
“It was a horrible feeling as he stuck his hand inside me and flexed his fingers,” Carroll said in her testimony, quoted by The Washington Post.
She testified that Trump then raped her in the dressing room before she pushed him back on her knee.
Carroll said she did not report the alleged incident to police because she blamed herself.
“I kept wondering why I walked in there and put myself in that situation,” she was quoted as saying by The Washington Post. “I’m proud to say I did go out. I lifted my knee and pushed him back.”
She went on to say that she “can no longer live a romantic life” and has not had sex since the alleged encounter.
Carroll is suing Trump under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which temporarily gives victims of sexual abuse a year to file a civil claim, even if it happened decades ago.
The former president was not present at the trial.
all caps statement Speaking on Truth Social after the verdict, Trump denied knowing who Carroll was and called the verdict a “disgrace,” calling it “the continuation of the greatest witch hunt ever.”
in another postal Hours before the sentencing, Trump said he planned to appeal his “unconstitutional silence,” claiming he was “not allowed to speak or defend himself,” even though he had the opportunity to testify during the trial.
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