Trump rejects last chance to testify at New York civil trial
CBSMay 04, 2023
The Facts
After two-and-a-half hours of deliberations, a Manhattan, N.Y., jury found former Pres. Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming former Elle Magazine columnist E Jean Carroll in 1996. However, they returned a not-guilty verdict for rape.
Though Trump doesn't face any criminal consequences due to this being a civil case, the jury did award Carroll a collective $5M in both compensatory and punitive damages.
The Spin
Pro-Trump narrative
Of course, a liberal jury from the blue state of New York would believe that, with no witnesses or scene of the crime evidence, Donald Trump forced himself upon a woman in a public department store that typically kept changing rooms locked until an attendant opened it for a customer. After Carroll publicly stated this was not rape for years, she saw the golden ticket when presented with a political operative (aka a lawyer) to sue the billionaire for millions of dollars.
Democratic narrative
Thanks to New York's new sexual assault survivor law, E. Jean Carroll was finally able to get justice for what the openly misogynistic Trump did to her decades ago. It's true that this is unsurprising; not because her story lacked credibility but rather that his only defense was that Carroll was not his "type." Trump has fumbled his way through this defamation saga for years, and his lies — and sins — have finally caught up to him.
