Nearly three decades after E Jean Carroll claims Donald Trump raped her in a dressing room, the pair faced off in court. Andrew Feinberg explains the case
Nearly three decades after E Jean Carroll accused Donald Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room, the writer faced him in court for a civil lawsuit that would become a major legal battle.
Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, filed a pair of civil lawsuits against the former president. One of these was heard in a New York City federal courtroom, overseen by US District Judge Lewis Kaplan. The trial, which began on 25 April, saw closing arguments on 8 May. On 9 May, the jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll but not for rape. They awarded her $5 million in damages, which included defamation.
Due to the risks of threats and intimidation against jurors and anyone connected to the case, Judge Kaplan ordered the jury to remain anonymous throughout the trial.
Carroll testified that Trump raped her in the mid-1990s in the dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan. She first publicly spoke out about the incident in 2019, when Trump was still in office. After he denied the allegations and accused her of fabricating the story to promote her book, Carroll filed a defamation lawsuit against him in November 2019. This suit faced delays and has not yet gone to trial.
In 2022, New York passed the Adult Survivors Act, which allowed sexual abuse survivors to file lawsuits against their attackers for incidents that occurred years prior. This legislation created a one-year window for victims to seek justice in the courts.
