The sexual abuse verdict against Trump
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 10 May 2023
⏱️ 24 minutes
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Summary
A civil jury in New York has found that former president Donald Trump sexually assaulted and defamed the writer E. Jean Carroll. Today on “Post Reports,” we talk about the evidence, the possible political consequences and why this trial happened.
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Jurors deliberated for less than three hours before siding with Carroll, awarding her a combined $5 million in damages. She testified during the trial that Trump violently assaulted her in the mid-1990s and inflicted further trauma by ridiculing her when she spoke out, calling her a liar and saying that she wasn’t “his type.”
That claim became central in the trial because Trump mistook an old photo of Carroll for a photo of his ex-wife in his deposition. Combined with the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape of Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women, his deposition became key evidence for Carroll’s legal team.
At least 17 women have accused Trump of varying degrees of sexual misconduct. Trump has denied every sexual harassment claim against him, but many of his accusers saw themselves in Carroll.
Since the verdict, concerns about Trump’s electability have resurfaced within the Republican Party.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before we start, just a warning, this episode contains explicit language and mentions of |
| 0:06.8 | sexual abuse. |
| 0:09.9 | So on Tuesday, a federal jury found that former president Donald Trump was liable of sexual |
| 0:16.4 | abuse and defamation against the writer E. Jean Carroll. |
| 0:20.8 | Kim Belware has been in New York the past couple weeks covering this trial for the post, |
| 0:24.8 | and she was in the courtroom when this stunning verdict came down. |
| 0:27.7 | A verdict that awarded E. Jean Carroll $5 million. |
| 0:31.4 | The moment the verdict was read, really is one of those things that courtroom movies are |
| 0:37.3 | written about. |
| 0:38.6 | There was nervous energy, for sure. |
| 0:41.7 | The gallery was full. |
| 0:46.6 | And so the first question was, did E. Jean Carroll prove by a proponderance of the evidence |
| 0:51.5 | that Trump raped her and the jury came back no? |
| 0:55.8 | So then you could just hear a pin drop because there was maybe the worry on the plaintiff's |
| 1:04.2 | side, oh no, is this going to be a wash for us? |
| 1:07.3 | And then once they got into the next question that the jury did find Trump liable of sexual |
| 1:13.5 | abuse, then things started to change as they got into monetary awards and finding that |
| 1:20.7 | Trump was also liable for defamation. |
| 1:23.2 | A row of women in front of me who are all young female associates who work with Roberta |
| 1:29.7 | Kaplan's law firm that's E. Jean Carroll's lawyer, they started to cry. |
| 1:34.8 | They were almost shaking, holding back sobs. |
| 1:38.4 | And then afterwards, once the jury was pulled and everybody was dismissed, those young female |
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