On Tuesday, a federal jury in a civil case brought against Donald Trump found the former president liable of sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll.
The Manhattan jury, comprised of six men and three women, ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million in damages after deliberating for less than three hours, CNBC reported.
“Jurors notably did not find Trump liable for rape, the most serious allegation Carroll made in a lawsuit filed last year,” per CNBC. “But their verdict that he sexually abused and forcibly touched her without her consent ... substantiated her civil claim of battery.”
While instructing the jury prior to their deliberations on Tuesday, “the judge explained the jury’s three options for finding Mr. Trump liable for battery, meaning an assault on Ms. Carroll: that he had raped her, sexually abused her or forcibly touched her,” The New York Times wrote.
Because of the statute of limitations, no criminal charges can be filed in the case, so Carroll sued Trump in civil court. Civil cases typically require a lower burden of proof than criminal cases.
Who is E. Jean Carroll? What did she accuse Trump of?
Carroll, a 79-year-old former magazine writer, accused Trump of raping her nearly three decades ago inside of a Manhattan Bergdorf Goodman department store, per The New York Times.
Trump denied Carroll’s accusations and Carroll subsequently filed suit against him in 2022 for battery and defamation, according to The Washington Post.
“I filed this lawsuit against Donald Trump to clear my name and to get my life back. Today, the world finally knows the truth,” Carroll said in a statement Tuesday, NBC News reported.
Trump’s response to the trial
The former president claimed in a post on his Truth Social account that he was “not allowed to speak” or defend himself at the trial, but reports say that the judge gave him the opportunity to do so.
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan gave the former president a final deadline to file a request to testify by 5 p.m. Sunday, and no request was ever filed, per CBS News.
Trump did not appear in court during the two-week trial, and has denied Carroll’s allegations against him.
In one Truth Social post, Trump called the court proceedings a “very unfair trial,” and criticized the trial judge in another post.
Joseph Tacopina, Trump’s attorney in the civil trial, told reporters outside the Manhattan federal courthouse that they will appeal the verdict, according to Reuters.