DThe jury of six men and three women needed only three hours for their verdict on Tuesday. She found Donald Trump guilty of sexual assault in 1996. This is the first time the former US President has had to legally atone for his dealings with women and pay damages of five million dollars.
Author E. Jean Carroll accused Trump in 2019 of raped her in a dressing room at a luxury department store in New York. The jury did not find rape proven, but did find sexual assault. Although the incident dates back more than 25 years, Carroll was able to file a civil suit based on a 2022 New York law.
“I have absolutely no idea who this woman is”
The condemned responded immediately, and only in capital letters. “I have absolutely no idea who this woman is. This verdict is a disgrace – a sequel to the greatest witch hunt of all time,” he wrote on his Truth Social account. His team announced an appeal.
Another charge has been pending in New York since April against the 76-year-old, who is said to have falsified documents in 2016 for paying hush money to an ex-porn star. In three other cases, the judiciary is investigating Trump, among other things, for election manipulation and his role in the storming of the Capitol in January 2021 in Washington.
Donald Trump had rejected Carroll’s allegations from the start. She was “not my type”, “crazy” and “mentally ill”. The 79-year-old therefore also raised the allegation of defamation against the New York construction tycoon – with success. According to reporters, the plaintiff was heard laughing and crying in the courtroom after the verdict.
Plaintiff E. Jean Carroll after the sentencing – she looks relieved
Source: AP/Seth Little
Carroll had spent three days, partly under cross-examination by Trump’s lawyer, explaining all the details of the long-ago incident. She explained the motivation for going public a quarter of a century later with the “Me too” movement in the wake of the allegations of the sex criminal Harvey Weinstein, who is now in prison for life.
Trump’s competitors are quick to act
Among other things, she described how Trump pushed her into the locker room, locked the door and penetrated her vagina with his fingers, which was extremely painful. The jury obviously saw this allegation in the context of a 2005 tape recording that appeared shortly before Trump’s 2016 election.
“Trump is a sexual predator”: a protester outside the courthouse in New York
Quelle: Getty Images via AFP/SPENCER PLATT
Trump then says, “If you’re a star, they let you do anything. You can do anything (…), grab their pussy. You can do anything.” The jury decided against finding Trump guilty of rape – despite Carroll’s claim that he also penetrated her with his penis.
Intra-party competitors in the race for the 2024 Republican nomination were quick to act. Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson warned that the verdict should be “taken seriously as another example of Donald Trump’s inexcusable behavior.”
Trump’s helpers use the template
Trump’s campaign team, on the other hand, immediately counterattacked. “Make no mistake – the whole lying case is a political maneuver because President Trump is overwhelmingly ahead of the race.” America’s “great Constitution is being misused for political gain.” The nation is in serious trouble when “unsubstantiated allegations” come to court to make “political points”.
So far, Trump has clearly benefited from the half-dozen investigations and indictments in the polls. According to a new survey, he is at 60 percent, his closest rival Ron DeSantis at 19 percent. But now Trump has been convicted in court for the first time. The polls will soon show whether this changes anything in his previously successful campaign in which he stylizes himself as a victim of a witch hunt.
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