World News | Jury finds Trump liable for sexual abuse, awards plaintiff $5 million

NEW YORK, May 9 (AP) A jury found Donald Trump responsible for a 1996 sexual abuse advice columnist, E. Jean Carroll, on Tuesday, a $5 million verdict that could haunt the former. President as he is campaigning to take back the White House.

A federal court in New York City delivered the verdict on the first day of jury deliberations. Jurors rejected Carroll’s claim that she was raped but found Trump responsible for sexually abusing her.

Read also | Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw met Google CEO Sundar Pichai in US to discuss Make in India plans.

Hours earlier, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan read legal notes to a nine-member jury, which then began debating Carroll’s battery and defamation charges shortly before noon.

Trump, who did not attend the trial, insisted he never sexually assaulted Carroll or even knew her.

Read also | Russo-Ukrainian War: The United States will provide Ukraine with $1.2 billion in long-term security assistance.

Kaplan told jurors that the first question on the verdict sheet was to decide whether they thought there was a greater than 50 percent chance that Trump raped Carroll in the store dressing room. If they answer yes, they will decide whether compensatory and punitive damages should be awarded.

If they answered no to the rape question, then they could decide whether Trump engaged in lesser forms of sexual assault on her without her consent, including sexual touching or forcible touching to demean her or gratify her. his libido. If they answer yes to any of these questions, they will decide whether damages are appropriate.

Regarding defamation allegations stemming from Trump’s social media statement last October, Kaplan said jurors need to be guided by a higher legal standard — clear and convincing evidence.

He said they would have to agree that Trump’s statement was “highly likely” to be false and made with intent to hurt or maliciously out of hatred or malice in a reckless disregard for Carroll’s rights.

Meanwhile, Trump posted a new message on social media, complaining that he is now awaiting a jury verdict on “false accusations.” He said he was “not allowed to speak or defend himself, even as stubborn reporters hurled questions at me about the case.”

Trump said he would not speak until after the trial, “but no matter what the outcome, I will appeal the unconstitutional practice of keeping me silent!”

Trump never attended the third week of the trial and declined an invitation to testify, even after Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, said Thursday that his client would not testify. Invitations extended through the weekend.

Tacopina told the jury in Monday’s closing statement that Carroll’s claims were far-fetched and unbelievable. She made it up, he said, to boost sales of a 2019 memoir in which she publicly disclosed her claims for the first time and disparaged Trump for political reasons.

Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, cited excerpts from Trump’s October testimony, as well as his infamous comments in a 2005 “Access Hollywood” video in which he Celebrities can grab women’s legs without asking, says .

She urged jurors to trust her client.

“He didn’t even bother to be here in person,” Kaplan said. She said much of what he said in his testimony and public statements “actually supports our case.”

“In a very real sense, Donald Trump is a witness against himself,” she said. “He knew what he had done. He knew he sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll.”

Carroll, 79, testified that she ran into 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 in the dressing room.

Tacopina told jurors that Carroll didn’t even remember the time of her encounter with Trump and there was no reason to call Trump as a witness.

He told the jury that Carroll fabricated her account after hearing about a 2012 episode of “Law & Order” in which a woman was raped in a dressing room in the lingerie section of a Bergdorf Goodman store.

“They mocked up their secret plan on an episode of one of the most popular shows on TV,” he said of Carroll.

Two of Carroll’s friends testified that she told them about the encounter with Trump shortly after it happened, many years before the “Law & Order” episode aired. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)