On Tuesday, a Manhattan jury found Donald Trump liable on almost all of the counts against him, including sexual abuse and defamation, and ordered him to pay E. Jean Carroll $5 million in damages. (The jury didn't find Trump liable of rape.) This counts as a big win for the former advice columnist and media personality. But make no mistake, her case was originally a long shot. That is, until Trump testified at his deposition.
Carroll first sued Trump alleging defamation in 2019. At that time, the statute of limitations for civil cases alleging sexual assault had long since expired. So Carroll employed a creative workaround: She sued him for defamation after he said Carroll lied about having sexually abused her. Then, in 2022, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed New York's Adult Survivors Act, which gave adult sexual assault survivors a one-time, one-year window to file lawsuits, regardless of how old the allegations were. Some 30 minutes after the act took effect, Carroll's attorneys filed their lawsuit against Trump alleging civil rape.
This is a preview of Danny Cevallos' latest article. Read the full column here.
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