Topline
The jury in the lawsuit case brought against Trump by writer E. Jean Carroll, who alleges the former president raped her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s, will begin deliberating on a verdict Tuesday morning.
E. Jean Carroll’s case against Donald Trump wrapped up Monday.
Key Facts
After a two-week trial, the jury received instructions on the law at 10 a.m. on Tuesday and began deliberations.
The verdict must be unanimous, and the trial is a civil case seeking damages, not a criminal case—the jury must decide, based on the evidence, if Trump raped Carroll.
Closing arguments wrapped up Monday afternoon, with Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina arguing the alleged rape didn’t happen and it was a fabricated story with political motives, and Carroll’s lawyers highlighting that Trump did not testify nor make an appearance in court for the trial.
Tacopina asked the jury if they “believe the unbelievable,” arguing Carroll would have reported the rape—which allegedly occurred nearly 30 years ago—right after it happened.
He also posited that Carroll and two women, whom she said she immediately told about the assault and who testified during the trial, colluded to ruin Trump’s political ambitions and to sell her memoir.
Carroll’s lawyers Mike Ferrara and Roberta Kaplan have countered by saying Trump’s history of sexual assault—he has been accused by numerous women in the past, though never convicted—was clear before Carroll’s accusations when he won the 2016 presidential election.
Chief Critic
Trump posted to Truth Social on Tuesday morning calling Carroll’s accusations false. He also said he was not allowed to “speak or defend myself,” likely referring to earlier Truth Social posts he made on the first day of the trial. In those two posts, which have been deleted, he called the case a “scam” and a “political operative,” but Judge Lewis Kaplan asked Tacopina to ensure Trump stopped posting online about the trial while it was ongoing. In Tuesday’s post, Trump said he plans to “appeal the Unconstitutional silencing of me…no matter the outcome.”
Key Background
Carroll, who wrote an advice column for Elle for several decades, is seeking an unspecified monetary compensation—which some analysts have estimated could be as high as $2.7 million—for claims of rape and defamation because Trump denied her allegations. She first accused Trump of rape in 2019 when she published an excerpt of her memoir in which she describes the attack in a dressing room in the department store Bergdorf Goodman. The two were shopping together before they entered a dressing room together and he pulled down her tights and raped her, she has said. The incident occurred in the mid-1990s but Carroll was able to file the assault claim in 2022 after the passage of the Adult Survivors Act, which allows adult sexual assault victims to file suits no matter how long ago the conduct occurred.
What To Watch For
This trial was the result of the second of two lawsuits filed by Carroll against Trump. The first, which was filed in 2019 before the Adult Survivors Act was passed, only alleges defamation—not sexual assault—for the comments Trump made after Carroll published the excerpt of her memoir reccounting the alleged rape. The first lawsuit faces delays because it was filed while Trump was serving as president, and government employees are generally protected from defamation claims, which could cause Carroll’s case to fail. It was indefinitely postponed a month before the trial for the second lawsuit began.
Further Reading
Trump Rape Trial Begins Tuesday—Here’s What To Know (Forbes)
E. Jean Carroll Testifies: ‘Donald Trump Raped Me’ (Forbes)
Donald Trump Seeks Mistrial In E. Jean Carroll Rape Trial (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/05/09/jury-in-donald-trump-rape-trial-begins-deliberation/