Related Articles
When E. Jean Carroll and Donald Trump went to trial last spring over her sexual assault allegations, a nine-person civil jury found that Trump sexually abused her but that she failed to prove he raped her.
The former president made hay of that distinction when he sued Carroll in June, alleging Carroll defamed him by saying she was raped in a media interview after the verdict.
The counterattack was quickly shot down.
Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled in August that the jury verdict showed Carroll’s rape allegation was “substantially true” and dismissed the counterclaim.
In May, Carroll was awarded a combined $5 million for sexual abuse and for a 2022 denial by Trump that the jury concluded defamed Carroll. On Friday, a jury in a separate civil defamation case awarded Carroll $83.3 million for two lengthy denials Trump made in 2019, soon after Carroll went public with her story.
Trump has always denied Carroll’s allegations. He has already appealed the first verdict and has vowed to appeal the second.
So did a jury find Trump raped Carroll, or didn’t it?
The answer has to do with what “rape” means.
Because the jurors rendered their May verdict in a civil case, they were asked only whether Carroll proved her allegation was probably true. In a criminal case, prosecutors would need to prove the allegation beyond a reasonable doubt.
Carroll testified that she struggled to get Trump off her as he shoved his mouth on hers, yanked her tights down, and penetrated her with his hand and then his penis. She described him curving his finger inside her, saying it was “extremely painful” and “a horrible feeling.”
Under New York criminal law, an assault constitutes “rape” only if it involves vaginal penetration by a penis. That was the definition the jury was instructed to use in the civil case.
