Former President Trump ordered to pay Elizabeth Jean Carrol $5 million
Former President Don Trump today has been ordered to pay journalist Elizabeth Jean Carrol $5 million dollars for sexually abusing her in a Fifth Avenue, New York, department store.
Carroll alleged Trump raped her in the Bergdorf Goodman department store and then defamed her when he denied her claim, saying she wasn’t his type. He suggested she made up the story to boost sales of her book.
While the jury found that Trump sexually abused her, sufficient to hold him liable for battery, the jury did not find that Carroll proved he raped her. He does not face any jail time as a result of the civil verdict.
Trump called the verdict a “total disgrace.” He refused to testify in the trial and did not put on a defense.
Like any defendant in a civil case, he wasn’t required to appear in court for trial or proceedings and had a right not to testify in his own defense.