The nine New Yorkers who will determine if Donald Trump raped E. Jean Carroll — and then defamed her when she spoke out — began deliberations just before noon Tuesday.
Manhattan Federal Court Judge Lewis Kaplan spent about two hours instructing jurors before handing the historic case off to them.
The panel will deliberate Carroll’s battery and defamation claims from her November 2022 lawsuit. She alleges Trump sexually assaulted and raped her inside a changing room at Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue in the mid-1990s and slandered her reputation when she came forward decades later. Trump denies the allegations.
To find that Trump is liable for battery, jurors don’t have to determine that he raped Carroll. Judge Kaplan told them that finding Trump subjected Carroll to forcible touching was enough to meet the battery standard.
The jury got the case after hearing two weeks of testimony, including from Carroll and two additional women who have accused Trump of sexually assaulting them in public. They also saw extensive footage of Trump in his combative videotaped deposition and the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape.
Trump didn’t attend any of his trial, passing up multiple opportunities to take the stand in his defense. Despite a last-minute offer from the presiding judge to possibly extend the case to allow Trump to testify, the former president told his followers inaccurately in a Truth Social post on Tuesday morning that he was “not allowed to speak or defend myself.”
If found liable for both claims, Trump could owe Carroll up to $2.7 million.