Former president Donald Trump has been found ‘liable’ in a lawsuit against him on May 9th from E Jean Carroll- a journalist who accused him of sexual assault at a NY department store in the 90’s. 

Her lawsuit also sued for defamation, as while the President at the time’s scandals over sexual misconduct accusations were becoming public in 2019, he had stated in several rallies defaming comments such as “She wouldn’t have been my first choice,” implying Carroll wasn’t his ‘type’; former President Trump’s main defense of the case was that he was not attracted to the victim, meaning he could not have committed the rape.

The jury unanimously found Trump liable of defamation and sexual assault, not rape. Rape under the NY criminal system involves some kind of sexual intercourse, which the jury did not find “evidence beyond reasonable doubt” of. 

Among the evidence played for the jury was Trump’s sense of power to sexually assault women given his status as a celebrity. One video was the infamous Access Hollywood tape, where a hot mic picked up on Trump in the 2000’s bragging that male celebrities may touch women as they please without repercussions.

Trump was further asked what he meant by the tape at the time, and he reiterated that rich and famous men have always had sexual control over women, “fortunately or unfortunately”. Trump’s inability to dismiss statements has hurt him in the past as well, as he remarked once over a fight between Neo-Nazi and Black Lives Matter protesters that “well, there are good people on both sides;” as well as during a presidential debate, he could not denounce proud boys leaders, white supremacists who had committed domestic terrorism.

Trump repeated several times that Carroll was “not his type”, and that he did not even know the woman, which he included in a post on his Truth Social site after the ruling, saying it was a part of a massive witch-hunt. He then misidentified a picture of Carroll as his ex-wife, Marla Maples.

The evidence was enough to find Trump liable of sexual assault and defamation.

The ruling is the first case of its kind to find the former president guilty of any crime, among the grocery list he is still facing today, E Jean Carroll’s lawyer herself remarked on Wednesday that her case is “proof that no person, not even a former president, is above the law”.