A civil jury has determined that in the 1990s, former President Donald Trump sexually abused a magazine columnist in a New York department store.
But Mr. Trump was judged not guilty of raping E Jean Carroll in the Bergdorf Goodman dressing room.
The jury also deemed Mr. Trump liable for defamation because he referred to the writer’s accusations as “a hoax and a lie.”
It is the first occasion that Mr. Trump has been held legally liable for a sexual assault.
The jury in Manhattan ordered Mr. Trump to pay her about $5 million (£4 million) in damages.
Due to the civil nature of the proceeding, Mr. Trump will not be required to register as a sexual offender.
Tuesday, the jury of six men and three women reached a verdict after deliberating for less than three hours.
Mr. Trump, who refuted the allegations, did not appear in court for the two-week civil trial in Manhattan.
Ms Carroll held the hands of her two solicitors as the verdict was read in court and beamed when the jury awarded her damages.
As the trial concluded, Mr. Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, shook her hand and said, “Congratulations and good luck.”
Ms Carroll did not halt outside of court, but she did tell reporters “we’re very happy” before leaving with her solicitors in a car.
After the verdict, Mr. Trump posted in all capital letters on his social media platform Truth Social, “I have no idea who this woman is.”
“This verdict is a disgrace – a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time!”
The cross-examination of Ms Carroll by Mr Trump’s solicitors was acrimonious.
Her legal team summoned eleven witnesses to corroborate her claims that Mr. Trump assaulted her in 1995 or 1996 in the lingerie section of a luxury department store.
They included two women who claim Mr. Trump sexually assaulted them decades ago, as well as two of her longtime friends who claim she told them about the incident immediately after it occurred.
On the witness stand, Ms. Carroll described in explicit detail what allegedly occurred in the store and the trauma she claims to have suffered as a result.
“I’m here because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it, he lied and said it didn’t happen,” she said.
Mr. Trump did not summon any witnesses and only appeared in a video deposition played for the jury, in which he denied rape.
Mr. Trump said in the footage, “It’s the most ridiculous and disgusting story.” “It’s just made up.”
In her lawsuit, Ms. Carroll alleged that Mr. Trump defamed her in an October 2022 social media post in which he referred to her claims as “a complete con job” and “a Hoax and a lie.”
Her legal team argued that Mr. Trump, 76, acted as a “witness against himself” during the deposition by reiterating statements he made in a 2005 recording.
In the audio recording, known as the Access Hollywood video, which was leaked in 2016, Mr. Trump suggested that women should allow celebrities to “do anything” to them, including grabbing their genitalia.
That is what he did to Ms. Carroll, argued her attorney Roberta Kaplan. Ms. Kaplan is unrelated to the assigned judge, Lewis Kaplan.
This is breaking news and will be updated immediately.
