A jury in New York finding Donald Trump,
the Republican
presidential frontrunner, by far liable
for sexually abusing
and defaming writer Eve Jean Carroll.
The jury
also awarding the former
magazine columnist
nearly $5 million in damages to be paid
by Mr. Trump.
Carol
walked out of the Manhattan
courthouse just moments ago
with her lawyer
who said that
they are, quote, very happy
with the jury's decision Carroll's
lawsuit
stemmed from an encounter between her
and Trump
in a New York department
store dressing room in 1996.
Bergdorf Goodman
where she claims Donald Trump sexually
assaulted her.
Donald Trump
just reacted on
his social media platform, writing in all
caps, quote,
I have absolutely no idea
who this woman is.
This verdict is a disgrace,
a continuation of the greatest witch
hunt of all time, unquote.
This all comes as Trump is facing
another very serious
case in New York City just last month.
The former president pleaded
not guilty to 34 felony charges
related to
hush money payments
to adult film star and director
Stormy Daniels,
not to mention investigations
by the Justice Department
into January six
and to those classified documents at Mar
a Lago.
Not to mention the investigation
by prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia,
who are looking into his attempt
to flip Georgia,
perhaps illegally in the 2020 election.
But let's go back to the first verdict.
Let's get right to CNN's Chris Scannell
outside the courthouse in New York.
And Carol,
this was pretty quick, and it was also
I think it was more money
than she was originally asking for.
Right.
Yeah, Jake, I mean, this
verdict was returned in
just just over
two and a half hours of deliberations,
which seemed extremely quick for
the jury for him
that had a number of questions
that they had to answer.
And the jury here found that
Trump was liable
for sexually abusing aging Carol.
That's all related to her.
You know, her story
that she says Trump raped her in Bergdorf
Goodman Department
Store in the mid 1990s.
And they also found that Trump
defamed her
when he made
these statements on October 12,
saying that
he did not know who Carol was.
He said that her story was a hoax
and that she was not his type.
Now, over this, you know,
there were seven days of testimony.
The jury heard from 11 witnesses
that Carol put on.
Trump
did not put on a defense
although the jury did see
the video deposition of him.
And that's something
that Carol's team had argued
would cut against him.
And it seems that the jury
did agree with that and finding that way.
And they also awarded
Carol $5 million in damages.
Now, as this verdict was read
just after 3 p.m.
Eastern Time today,
it was read by the judge's clerk.
Carol was sitting there
in between two of her attorneys.
She was holding the hands
of one of her attorneys.
And when the question came of, you know,
did they prove that
Eugene Carol, prove
that that Trump had sexually abused her?
And the answer was yes,
you could see that she looked relieved.
She was leaning forward at times.
She, you know, exchanged smiles
with one of her attorneys.
And then the judge had excused the jury
after they ran through the verdict
and he pulled each
and every one of them,
six men, three women.
They all said
that this was their unanimous verdict.
You know,
then Carol was still in the courtroom
and Trump's attorney, Joe Tacopina,
walked over to her, shook her hand.
He also shook the hands of her attorneys
You know, it was was a very civil
trial between both sides.
They were both very respectful
of each other, despite
what was on the line.
And we saw that continue
through this final moment.
And then,
as you mentioned,
Carol left
were waiting for her
to have a statement
based on this verdict.
I mean, it was you know,
she says this rape occurred 27 years ago.
The jury agreed with her
and she was something she only came
public with in 2019.
And that lawsuit, that initial lawsuit
is still working its way
through the system.
She brought the second lawsuit
under a new New York law.
The adult Survivors Act just in November.
So, you know, certainly
a big moment for her.
And, you know,
her lawyers have said to the jury
that they weren't
looking for a specific amount of money,
that this was really about Carol
getting her name back.
So that
I imagine we'll hear a little bit
from Carol about that,
something she'd been fighting for.
You know,
we have not seen Trump's
attorney, Joe Tacopina,
leave the courthouse just yet.
We're waiting to see
if he's going to make any statements,
if they're if they will move
to appeal in this case.
And he previously asked for a mistrial
that a standard
that was denied
but I'm sure we'll see
some additional moves from them
and some potential legal decisions
that were made
and allowed by the judge in this case
and may look to challenge them.
But a big win for Jean
Carroll today, a long time
coming for her.
And as you said,
just one of several different
lawsuits and investigations
that the former president
is facing, Jake.
So we should note
that the jury had an option to find him
liable for rape.
And they did not they did find him liable
for sexual abuse and for defamation.
Now he's on truth social,
doing his all caps thing.
Maybe.
Maybe I misunderstood.
I thought the judge had told him
not to do it.
I'm not that not that under
the Constitution,
that's the right ruling.
But I thought the judge had told
him not to do that.
Yeah.
So Trump had been
posting on through social
at the very start of this trial.
And, you know, just to back up a moment,
the judge made this jury anonymous,
anonymous both to him and to the parties.
And the reason he did that,
he said, was because
of some of the statements Trump has made,
you know,
even leading up to his indictment
in the case
brought by the Manhattan
District Attorney's Office,
because some of these statements
were viewed as being,
you know, calls
for violence, calls for protests.
So he wanted to protect the jury
and as a result,
protect the process here of this trial.
So when Trump had made some post
untrue social,
it was brought to the judge's attention.
He warned Trump's attorney,
you know, someone should talk to him
because he could possibly
be violating some statutes here.
You know,
he didn't get into details there.
But, you know, people were talking
that this could be, you know,
suggesting there's jury
tampering, witness tampering,
you know,
anything of just
bringing additional attention to this.
And Joe
Tacopina, Trump's
lawyer, said that he did talk to him
and we did see,
you know, a true social post by Trump.
Stop.
He did make those comments in Ireland,
but they weren't
they weren't really raised
as an issue in this trial.
And, you know,
the reason why
the judge wanted him to stop
is he wants to protect the jury
and he wanted to
protect the integrity of the trial
so they wouldn't end up with a mistrial.
And, you know,
that's where we saw the judge
even telling the jury today,
you can't speak to any one
you want about this.
You can't identify yourself.
He said, I would advise you not to.
He said,
if you do decide to talk to someone,
don't reveal
the names of the other jurors
because he wants to protect them.
I mean, he he said,
I would advise you not to speak now
and not for a very long time.
So it's something that he
is concerned about, given the
you know, the issues even in this case.
I mean,
the case here is about
Carol, making this allegation trumps
making those statements.
And then Carol receiving
numerous negative tweets, emails.
She said she was sleeping
with a gun in her bed
because she was so concerned about her
safety
based on the reaction
of some of Trump's followers.
So that's something that I think
the judge
was taking into consideration here.
So obviously, during the case,
agent Carol's attorney
introduced that Access
Hollywood tape of Donald Trump
and I think 2006
talking with Billy Bush about how
if you're a star, you can get away with
sexual assault,
essentially grabbing women by their
their genitals.
In addition, I believe there were
there was at least one,
if not two other women
who testified
and claimed that Donald Trump
had done similar things to them. Right.
Because there's this in this context
that there are more than a dozen women
who have made similar allegations
about Donald Trump who who testified.
Exactly. And what did they testify about?
Yes, there were two women who testified.
One of them is Jessica Lead.
She said that she was sitting in
first class on an airplane
next to Donald Trump in 1979 or 1980.
And she said that Trump just started
groping her then.
And the other person who testified,
Natasha Stoynoff,
she was a reporter for People magazine
and she said
that she was down at Mar
a Lago interviewing Trump
for a story in 2005
and that he had lured her
into a private room
and then started kissing her forcibly.
She was trying to push him off
and she said he only stopped
when a butler walked into the room.
And in both of these women instances,
the reason
why Carole's attorneys called him is
they wanted to show
that this was a pattern.
Both of these women said
that Trump just started kissing
them, just started groping
them, just started coming on to them,
and then only stopped
when someone interrupted it or it was a,
you know, a semipublic place.
And that was
another piece of their testimony was that
they then went public with their stories,
their allegations.
Right before the 2016 election, Trump
was asked about them or himself
brought it up on the campaign trail.
And in both of those instances,
he attacked the women, saying essentially
that they weren't his type.
So Carole's lawyers
were using this
to say
that the jury this was the pattern
Trump would make these
semipublic assaults.
If someone went public with it,
he would then attack their their
you know their looks
and their credibility
And they said to the jury,
you should look this pattern.
Now, the judge
said the jury could consider that
when they were evaluating
whether Trump assaulted Carol,
they could
consider this their review
if they found that
they believe those women
by a preponderance of evidence,
which the judge said was just over 50%.
So he said they could consider
and he said
if they didn't believe this woman,
they didn't have to consider it.
But it was something
that they were allowed
to use in this case.
And it could be a possible
point of appeal for Trump's team.
All right, Chris Cornell,
thank you so much. Really appreciate it.