New York, May 9 (EFE).- In a trial that lasted only two weeks and with a jury that made a decision in less than three hours, Americans today attended the first conviction verdict against former President Donald Trump for sexual abuse and defamation of the writer E. Jean Carroll, the only one who managed to bring to fruition the numerous complaints expressed by several other women for inappropriate sexual conduct.
The allegations from more than ten women emerged after a video was posted on Access Hollywood during the 2016 presidential campaign in which Trump bragged about kissing and touching women without their consent. With today’s decision by an anonymous jury, these women – whose claims Trump has consistently rejected – will be able to feel that they were heard.
The 79-year-old Carroll herself said today in a brief written statement that victory was not hers alone: “Today, the world finally knows the truth. This victory is not only for me, but for every woman who has suffered because they did not believe her ”.
“We are grateful to E. Jean Carroll, who will inspire survivors to come forward to tell their stories and stand up to abusers. This case shows that all perpetrators, no matter how powerful, can and will be held accountable,” she said after the verdict was released RAINN, the country’s largest anti-sexual violence organization.
This judicial process has captured the attention of the media and today it summoned a crowd of reporters, photographers and cameramen from early in the morning in front of the federal court in Manhattan, where the trial took place.
The expectation created by the trial – diminished by the absence of Trump himself – also brought together a handful of protesters who showed the press signs with messages such as “We believe Carroll”, “Trump is a predator” or “Lies have consequences”. .
Among those who protested today was Laurie Arbeiter, who said she was “relieved” with the decision of six men and three women. “They found him guilty of charges of sexual assault and defamation because Trump lies all the time and is a sexual and violent predator,” she told EFE.
He added that Trump “is not fit to hold any office, much less the presidency” and insisted that Carroll “has been telling the truth.”
Carroll accused Trump of having raped her in a department store fitting room in 1996 by pinning her against a wall and of having defamed her when she recounted what happened in a book that she published two decades after the event, of which she never filed a complaint with the police. Trump, who was president when the book was published in 2019, accused Carroll of being a liar and that her complaint only sought to sell the book, in addition to proclaiming that she was not her “type.”
SOME FACTS THAT ANNULLED HER SEXUALLY FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE
The former Elle magazine columnist stood her ground during the court proceedings. “I am here because Trump raped me. He lied and destroyed my reputation and I’m trying to get my life back,” she said during her trial testimony in the civil case in federal court in Manhattan. Carroll has assured that after the incident with Trump, she has not had sexual relations again.
Today at ten o’clock in the morning, local time, she walked firmly into the courtroom in this last session, wearing a cream dress and brown jacket, and black heels, accompanied by her lawyers, with whom she spoke before the magistrate Lewis Kaplan will enter.
Kaplan reviewed with the jury the form with 10 questions to which they had to answer with a “yes” or “no” about the rape, sexual assault and defamation, plus the compensation they believed Carroll should be given, in case his decision hurt him. was favorable.
He explained the facts for which Carroll accuses Trump, the New York law that allowed him to file a complaint for that incident even though 25 years have passed, the difference between rape and sexual assault, what defamation means; about that, he reminded them that they should make their decision based on the evidence presented in the process and not on comments from the lawyers, the judge or what they believed.
The jury, which left shortly before noon, returned with a verdict of guilty of “sexual assault” and defamation, but not of rape. Carroll, 79, walked out of court smiling without comment to the crowd of journalists waiting outside the courthouse.
