A civil jury on Tuesday found former President Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing the writer E. Jean Carroll at a New York department store in the 1990s, and for defaming her last fall when he denied her claim.The jury of six men and three women also ordered Trump to pay Carroll a total of $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages after deliberating less than three hours in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Jurors notably did not find Trump liable for rape, the most serious allegation Carroll made in a lawsuit filed last year. But their verdict that he sexually abused and forcibly touched her without her consent during a chance encounter in the Bergdorf Goodman store substantiated her civil claim of battery. Trial in the case began on April 25.”I filed this lawsuit against Donald Trump to clear my name and to get my life back,” Carroll, 79, said in a statement Tuesday.”Today, the world finally knows the truth,” said Carroll, a former “Elle” magazine advice columnist and biographer of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.”This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed.”Her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, in her own statement, said, “No one is above the law, not even a former President of the United States.””For far too long, survivors of sexual assault faced a wall of doubt and intimidation,” Kaplan added. We hope and believe today’s verdict will be an important step in tearing that wall down.”Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump rides a golf cart at Trump International Golf Links course, in Doonbeg, Ireland May 4, 2023.Damien Storan | ReutersTrump, who neither testified at trial nor ever appeared in court, blasted the verdict in a post on Truth Social, his social media site.”I have absolutely no idea who this woman is,” the 76-year-old Trump wrote. “This verdic …
