Trump found guilty of sexual assault and defamation, but jury rejects rape charge

This Tuesday, a federal jury in New York found former President Donald Trump guilty of sexual abuse and defamation, but rejected the accusation of rape against the writer E. Jean Carrol, in a civil trial, which means that the president will not face jail time. The sentence has ruled that for sexually abusing the columnist in 1996, the former president must grant five million dollars to the victim. This verdict may complicate the race to recover the White House in the 2024 presidential elections.

In Truth Social, the tycoon's social network, Trump declared that the trial had been “an embarrassment”, moments after the verdict was announced, adding: “I have no idea who this woman is.. This verdict is a shame, a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time!”. An argument that he also repeated when he sat on the bench a few months ago in the case that related him to payments to the porn actress Stormy Daniels. Later, Trump, who did not attend the trial, told Fox News Digital: “We will appeal. The Clinton-appointed judge treated us very badly.”.

Carroll accused Trump of having raped her in the changing room of a New York department store in the mid-1990s, and also of defaming her when she decided to make her complaint public in a book she published in 2019.. The judge warned that he would not admit shouting or applause at the time of pronouncing the verdict, and the complainant Carroll, who also attended this last session, did not show any immediate reaction..

The writer, through her evidence, would have proven that Trump sexually abused her, but the jury rejected the accusation that she had been raped, since sexual assault in New York is defined as subjecting someone to sexual contact without their consent. Although this is not the only case — more than 12 have done so — in which a woman has denounced the former president for inappropriate sexual conduct, this was the first trial in which the former president has been found guilty..

For his part, he also made public a first reaction against the verdict. “In jurisdictions wholly controlled by the Democratic Party, our nation's judicial system is compromised by politicians of the extreme left.. We have allowed false and totally fabricated claims by disturbed people to interfere in our elections, doing immense damage.”.

With this, the campaign team recognizes that the verdict may have electoral effects, in the campaign in which Trump starts as a favorite against the re-election attempts of the current president, Joe Biden.

This is the first time that Trump has been convicted after leaving the country's presidency, although last January his company, the Trump Organization, was sentenced to pay $1.61 million for a tax evasion plot..

The jury had to rule on whether Trump was responsible (term used in civil cases) for rape, sexual abuse or groping, and the jury chose the second possibility, in addition to finding him responsible for defamation. It also decided that Trump should compensate Carroll with a total of about five million dollars, of which two are for “the damages” caused by Trump in that sexual assault and 2.7 million for what is related to Carroll's reputation..

As this is a civil case, there are no prison sentences associated with it. The judge then turned to the lawyers and asked if they had anything to add, to which both defense and prosecution teams responded with a negative.