NEW YORK: A United States (US) jury started deliberating Tuesday on whether to find former president Donald Trump liable for the alleged rape of a US former magazine columnist in the mid-1990s.
If the 9 jurors ruled in favour of accuser E. Jean Carroll, it would be the first time Donald Trump has faced legal consequences over sexual misconduct claims.
He denies the allegation and has not been prosecuted. The New York jury is considering a civil lawsuit that seeks unspecified damages from Trump.
Carroll, 79, sued Donald Trump last year, alleging that he raped her in the luxury Bergdorf Goodman store’s changing room on Manhattan’s 5th Avenue in 1996.
The ex-columnist for Elle magazine also claimed that Trump defamed her when he called her “a complete con job” after she publicly spoke with the allegation in 2019.
Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican Party nomination for the 2024 presidential race, has called her case a “lie” and “a hoax.”
Carroll told the 2-week-long civil trial that the alleged sexual assault had left her feeling “ashamed” and unable to have any romantic relationships.
She said it took her more than twenty years to go public because she was “frightened” by Donald Trump.
More allegations against former US President
Her lawyers called to the witness stand 2 other women who testified that Donald Trump sexually assaulted them decades ago.
Jessica Leeds, a former businesswoman, told the Manhattan federal court that Donald Trump groped her in the business class section of a flight in the US in the 1970s.
Journalist Natasha Stoynoff said that Trump kissed her without her consent during an interview in 2005 at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Around a dozen women alleged Trump of sexual misconduct ahead of the 2016 presidential election that sent him to the White House.
The former president has denied all the allegations and has never faced prosecution over any of them. No criminal case can be lodged from Carroll’s lawsuit.
