Jury rejects claim of rape against Trump, awards accuser $7 million

Jury rejects claim of rape against Trump, awards accuser  million
A jury has discovered Donald Trump accountable for sexually abusing recommendation columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996, awarding her $US5 million ($7 million) in a judgment that would hang-out the previous president as he campaigns to regain the White House.

The verdict was introduced in a federal courtroom in New York City on the primary day of jury deliberations.

Jurors rejected Carroll’s claims that she was raped, however discovered Trump accountable for sexually assaulting her.

E. Jean Carroll, second from proper, arrives at Manhattan federal courtroom on Tuesday, May 9, 2023, in New York. (AP)
Donald Trump told the Proud Boys to "stand by" at a presidential debate.
It’s the primary time in historical past a former president has been discovered liable on expenses of this nature. (AP)

Trump selected to not attend the civil trial and was absent when the decision was learn.

Carroll nodded as the decision was learn.

Afterward, her legal professionals put their arms round her, and she or he hugged supporters within the gallery, smiling by means of tears.

Trump’s lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, shook arms with Carroll and hugged her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan.

As the courtroom cleared, Carroll may very well be heard laughing and crying.

Trump instantly lashed out with an announcement on his social media web site, claiming once more that he doesn’t know Carroll and referring to the decision as “a disgrace” and “a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time”.

The trial’s end result was a validation for Carroll, one in every of greater than a dozen ladies who accused Trump of sexual assault or harassment.

She went public in 2019 together with her allegation that the Republican raped her within the dressing room of a complicated Manhattan division retailer.

Joe Tacopina, Donald Trump’s lawyer, arrives in Manhattan federal courtroom in New York. (AP)

Trump, 76, denied it, saying he by no means encountered Carroll on the retailer and did not know her.

He has referred to as her a “nut job” who invented “a fraudulent and false story” to promote a memoir.

Carroll, 79, had sought unspecified damages, plus a retraction of what she mentioned had been Trump’s defamatory denials of her claims.

The trial revisited the lightning-rod subject of Trump’s conduct towards ladies.

Carroll gave a number of days of frank, sometimes emotional testimony, buttressed by two pals who instructed jurors she reported the alleged assault to them within the moments and day afterward.

Jurors additionally heard from Jessica Leeds, a former stockbroker who testified that Trump abruptly groped her towards her will on a aircraft within the Nineteen Seventies, and from Natasha Stoynoff, a author who mentioned Trump forcibly kissed her towards her will whereas she was interviewing him for a 2005 article.

In this picture taken from video launched by Kaplan Hecker & Fink, former president Donald Trump solutions questions throughout his October 19, 2022, deposition for his trial towards author E. Jean Carroll. (AP)

The six-man, three-woman jury additionally noticed the well-known 2005 Access Hollywood sizzling mic recording of Trump speaking about kissing and grabbing ladies with out asking.

The Associated Press usually doesn’t title individuals who say they’ve been sexually assaulted until they arrive ahead publicly, as Carroll, Leeds and Stoynoff have executed.

Tacopina instructed the jury in closing arguments on Monday that Carroll’s account is simply too far-fetched to be believed.

He mentioned she made it as much as gasoline gross sales of a 2019 memoir wherein she first publicly revealed her claims and to disparage Trump for political causes.

Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, cited excerpts from Trump’s October deposition and his infamous feedback on a 2005 Access Hollywood video wherein he mentioned celebrities can seize ladies between the legs with out asking.

E. Jean Carroll arrives at Manhattan federal courtroom for the decision. (AP)

She urged jurors to consider her shopper.

“He didn’t even bother to show up here in person,” Kaplan mentioned.

She mentioned a lot of what he mentioned in his deposition and in public statements “actually supports our side of the case.”

“In a very real sense, Donald Trump is a witness against himself,” she mentioned.

“He knows what he did. He knows that he sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll.”

Carroll testified that she had an opportunity encounter with Trump on the Bergdorf Goodman retailer throughout the road from Trump Tower.

She mentioned it was a lighthearted interplay wherein they teased one another about attempting on a bit of lingerie earlier than Trump grew to become violent inside a dressing room.

Tacopina instructed jurors there was no cause to name Trump as a witness when Carroll cannot even recall when her encounter with Trump occurred.

He instructed the jury Carroll made up her claims after listening to a couple of 2012 Law and Order episode wherein a girl is raped within the dressing room of the lingerie part of a Bergdorf Goodman retailer.

“They modelled their secret scheme on an episode of one of the most popular shows on television,” he mentioned of Carroll.

Two of Carroll’s pals testified that she instructed them in regards to the encounter with Trump shortly after it occurred, a few years earlier than the Law and Order episode aired.

Trump defiant in historic courtroom look

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Source: www.9news.com.au