**HEADLINE:** Civil Lawsuit Concludes: Jury Finds Former President Trump Liable for Sexual Abuse Against E. Jean Carroll
**LOCATION:** New York, NY
**SOURCE:** U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
**SUMMARY:** A federal jury in Manhattan has returned a verdict in the civil battery and defamation case brought by author E. Jean Carroll against former President Donald J. Trump. The jury found Mr. Trump liable for sexual abuse, as defined under New York law, occurring in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. However, the jury did not find Mr. Trump liable for the more specific claim of rape.
**DETAILS:**
- **WHO:** The case involves plaintiff E. Jean Carroll, a longtime advice columnist, and defendant Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the United States.
- **WHAT:** The jury found Mr. Trump liable for battery and defamation. The verdict awards Ms. Carroll a total of $5 million in damages: $2 million for the battery claim and $3 million for defamation. The defamation finding stems from Mr. Trump’s public denials, which the jury determined were made with malice and falsely accused Ms. Carroll of fabricating the incident for financial gain.
- **WHERE:** The event at the center of the claim took place in the lingerie section of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Midtown Manhattan. The trial was held at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse.
- **WHEN:** The alleged assault occurred in the spring of 1996. The verdict was delivered by the jury on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 9, 2023, following approximately three hours of deliberation after a two-week trial.
- **WHY:** The jury concluded that Ms. Carroll proved, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Mr. Trump sexually abused her and that his subsequent statements about the