Donald Trump sexually abused the magazine writer E Jean Carroll and defamed her, a jury decided on Tuesday night, ordering the former US president to pay her $5 million in damages.
However, the civil jury in New York rejected the writer’s claim that Mr Trump raped her.
It was another legal setback for the former US president as he seeks the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Responding to the verdict on his Truth Social app, Mr Trump said: “I have absolutely no idea who this woman is.”
He said the jury’s ruling was a “disgrace” and called it “the greatest witch hunt of all time”.
Mr Trump later added: "VERY UNFAIR TRIAL!"
Ms Carroll, 79, bowed her head and nodded when the decision was read while holding hands with her lawyer.
She did not speak as she left court but smiled broadly, later saying in a statement: “I filed this lawsuit against Donald Trump to clear my name and to get my life back.
“Today, the world finally knows the truth. This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed."
The nine-member jury in Manhattan federal court rejected Mr Trump’s denial that he assaulted Ms Carroll and ruled in her favour.
To find him liable, the jury of six men and three women was required to reach a unanimous verdict, which they did in less than three hours.
Mr Trump was ordered to pay $2 million (£1.58 million) in damages for sexual abuse, and $3 million for defamation.
A spokesman for Mr Trump, 76, said he would appeal and would not pay the damages while the appeal was ongoing.
Mr Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina said outside the court that his client would appeal the “perplexing and “inconsistent” verdict.
He said: "This was a rape case all along and the jury rejected that."
He said Mr Trump is “firm in his belief, as many people are, that he cannot get a fair trial in New York City, based on the jury pool.
"He's strong, he's ready to move forward, he wants to fight this on appeal.”
Ms Carroll claimed that Mr Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan in either 1995 or 1996.
She argued that he damaged her reputation by writing in a post on Truth Social last October that her claims were a “complete con job,” “a hoax” and “a lie”.
Jurors were given the option of deciding that Mr Trump either raped, sexually abused or forcibly touched Ms Carroll. They decided on “a preponderance of the evidence” that he sexually abused her.
Any one of those findings would have satisfied the claim of battery brought by Ms Carroll.
Before the verdict was read out, Judge Kaplan asked the court to maintain “decorum”, saying there would be no shouting or jumping up and down.
The trial featured evidence from two other women who claimed Mr Trump sexually assaulted them decades ago.
Natasha Stoynoff, a former reporter at People magazine, told jurors that Mr Trump cornered her at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida in 2005 and forcibly kissed her for a “few minutes” until a butler interrupted.
Jessica Leeds testified that Mr Trump kissed her, groped her and put his hand up her skirt on a flight in 1979.
Jurors also heard excerpts from a 2005 “Access Hollywood” video in which Mr Trump made remarks about women.
Mr Trump’s campaign spokesman branded it a “bogus case”, saying it was “a political endeavour targeting President Trump because he is now an overwhelming front-runner to be once again elected President of the United States.”
Mr Trump falsely claimed he was blocked from “speaking and defending” himself during the case, hours before the jury began deliberations.
Before the verdict was handed down, Mr Trump, 76, wrote: “Waiting for a jury decision on a false accusation where I, despite being a current political candidate and leading all others in both parties, am not allowed to speak or defend myself, even as hard nosed reporters scream questions about this case at me.”
Ms Carroll’s lawyer requested the jury be instructed that Mr Trump had declined the opportunity to testify in the case, to which Judge Kaplan replied: “We are where we are”.
Mr Tacopina previously assured Judge Kaplan he would tell his client to refrain from posting about the case after the former president called the lawsuit “a made up SCAM” and claimed Ms Carroll's lawyer was a “political operative”.
It seemed unlikely that the civil verdict would derail Mr Trump's presidential campaign.
Charlie Gerow, a Republican strategist, said: "The folks that are anti-Trump are going to remain that way, the core pro-Trump voters are not going to change.
"And the ambivalent ones I just don’t think are going to be moved by this type of thing."
Asked for his reaction, Joe Biden said: "I'm unaware. I heard that as I've been walking from room to room, I can't comment."
No criminal consequences
Because it was a civil case, Mr Trump will face no criminal consequences. His legal team decided not to present a defence or put Mr Trump himself on the witness stand.
Mr Trump had argued that Ms Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist and a registered Democrat, made up the allegations to hurt him politically and boost sales of her book.
Ms Carroll told the jury she bumped into Mr Trump at Bergdorf's while he was shopping for a gift for another woman.
She told the jury that she agreed to help Mr Trump pick out a gift, and the two looked at lingerie before he coaxed her into a dressing room, slammed her head into a wall and raped her.
Ms Carroll testified she could not remember the precise date or year the alleged rape occurred.
Mr Trump's legal team questioned why she had never reported the matter to police or screamed during the alleged incident.
Two of Ms Carroll's friends said she told them about the incident at the time but swore them to secrecy because she feared that Mr Trump would use his fame and wealth to retaliate against her if she came forward.
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiUmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRlbGVncmFwaC5jby51ay93b3JsZC1uZXdzLzIwMjMvMDUvMDkvZG9uYWxkLXRydW1wLXRyaWFsLXNleHVhbC1hYnVzZS_SAQA?oc=5
2023-05-10 07:27:00Z
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