Jury Reaches Verdict in E. Jean Carroll’s Suit Accusing Donald Trump of Rape – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

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Jurors have reached a verdict in a lawsuit accusing former President Donald Trump of raping advice columnist E. Jean Carroll.

The verdict will be announced at 3 pm in a federal courtroom in New York City.

Carroll, one of more than a dozen women who have accused Trump of sexual assault or harassment, went public in 2019 with her allegation that the Republican raped her in the dressing room of an upscale Manhattan department store in mid of the 1990s.

Trump, 76, chose not to attend the civil trial, but said he never encountered Carroll at the store and did not know him. He called her a nut job who invented a misleading and false story to sell a memoir.

Carroll, 79, is seeking unspecified damages, including a reprieve for what he says is Trump’s defamatory denial of his claims.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. An earlier AP story follows below.

A New York City jury began deliberating Tuesday in the case filed by columnist E. Jean Carroll, who alleges Donald Trump raped her in a luxury Manhattan department store in 1996.

US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan read legal instructions to the nine-person jury before the panel began deliberating on Carroll’s battery and defamation allegations just before noon.

If they believe Carroll, jurors can award compensatory and punitive damages. Trump, who did not attend the trial, insisted he never sexually assaulted Carroll or even knew her.

Kaplan told jurors that the first question on the verdict form was to decide whether they thought there was more than a 50% chance that Trump raped Carroll inside a store dressing room. If their answer is yes, they will decide whether compensatory and punitive damages should be awarded.

If they answer no to the rape question, they can decide whether Trump subjected her to a lesser degree of assault involving non-consensual sexual contact or forced touching to degrade her or gratify her sexually. that desire. If they answer yes to any of those questions, they’ll decide if damages are appropriate.

On Wednesday, the writer took the stand to tell jurors that Donald Trump assaulted her in a department store in 1996.

In defamation claims stemming from a statement Trump made on social media in October, Kaplan said jurors should be guided by the higher legal standard of clear and convincing evidence. He said they had to agree that it was highly likely that Trump’s statement was false and was made maliciously with intent to injure or out of hatred or ill will with reckless disregard for Carroll’s rights.

Meanwhile, Trump posted a new message on social media, complaining that he is now awaiting a jury’s decision on a False Impeachment. He said he was not allowed to speak or defend myself, even as hard-nosed reporters shouted questions about this case at me.

Trump says he won’t speak until the trial is over, but will appeal the Unconstitutional silencing of me … regardless of the outcome!

Trump never attended the trial, now in its third week, and declined an invitation to testify, which the judge extended over the weekend even after Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, said Thursday that the his client.

Tacopina told the jury in closing arguments Monday that Carroll’s account was too far-fetched to be believed. He said he did so to fuel sales of a 2019 memoir in which he first went public with his claims and to discredit Trump for political reasons.

Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, cited excerpts from Trump’s October deposition and his infamous comments in a 2005 Access Hollywood video in which he said celebrities can prey on women between legs without asking.

He urged jurors to believe his client.

He didn’t even bother to show up here in person, Kaplan said. He said that much of what he said in his deposition and in public statements actually supported our side of the case.

In a very real sense, Donald Trump is a witness against himself, he said. He knows what he did. He knew that he had sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll.

Carroll, 79, testified that he had a chance encounter with Trump at the Bergdorf Goodman store across the street from Trump Tower. She said it was a light-hearted interaction in which they teased each other about trying on a piece of underwear before Trump turned violent inside a dressing room.

Tacopina told jurors there was no reason to call Trump as a witness when Carroll could not remember when his encounter with Trump occurred.

He told the jury that Carroll made his claims after hearing about a 2012 Law and Order episode in which a woman was raped in the dressing room of the lingerie section of a Bergdorf Goodman store.

They did their secret method on an episode of one of the most popular television shows, he said of Carroll.

Two of Carroll’s friends testified that he told them about the meeting with Trump shortly after it happened, years before the episode of Law and Order aired.

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