The first conviction of Donald Trump is a fact. On Tuesday, a jury in New York convicted the former president and presidential candidate in a defamation case brought by a woman who accused Trump of rape in 1996. The jury found rape not proven, but sexual assault, and therefore also found that the defendant had accused the woman, a journalist. E. Jean Carroll, had tarnished her good name by accusing her of lying.
After a brief deliberation lasting several hours, the jury proposed that Carroll be awarded a total of $5 million in damages. Two million of those are in compensation for the suffering the assault caused her – she said during her testimony that she has not been able to have any romantic or sexual relations since the incident. For the libel Trump has caused her with his denial, the jury awards Carroll $ 2.7 million, of which $ 1.7 million is earmarked for the restoration of her reputation through a special program. Trump must pay the remaining $300,000 because his behavior has been “deliberately lax” out of “hatred, malice, spite, or willful, malicious disregard for her rights.”
On his own social platform (Truth Social, 5 million users according to Forbes), Trump lied that he was not given an opportunity to speak in his defense in federal court. Trump (possibly at the urging of his lawyers) did not want to speak. The judge had explicitly invited him to do so, with a deadline of Sunday afternoon. Trump said before the verdict that he would appeal. He insists that he “doesn’t know the whole woman” and that he could never have wanted to rape her because she “isn’t my type.” Painfully for him in this regard, during an interrogation in the fall, he pointed to a photo of Carroll and believed that she was his ex-wife. He has announced that he will appeal against this verdict.
Charity foundation
Now the question is what effect this verdict will have outside the courtroom. It is the first time that Trump has been convicted. He has previously managed to avoid a conviction with a settlement, such as in the case in which he used money from a charitable foundation in his name for his election campaign in 2016. He also had to pay damages to students at Trump University who “know the secret to success” would learn from the businessman, but instead received mainstream courses. This is another dent in his winner’s rhetoric, after losing the election in 2020 and losing many of his backed candidates in 2022.
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It is also the first time that a presidential candidate has faced a conviction. In any case, there will be one more criminal case coming up in election year 2024, for forgery – unless Trump tries to settle there. In addition, several other criminal investigations into his actions are ongoing, for example in the case of confidential state documents that he withheld from the National Archives, and for his actions after his 2020 election defeat. He pressured administrators in states where he lost to give him the election, or to appoint random electors who would not vote for the actual winner Biden, but for Trump. The prosecution is also investigating what role Trump played in the storming of the Capitol by his supporters.
So far, Trump appears to be electorally unaffected by his legal vicissitudes. On the contrary: since he has been persecuted on several fronts, he has outperformed his (potential) Republican rivals in polls. He has also managed to raise much more money for his campaign. On Wednesday, Trump will appear on the TV channel CNN, which he usually labeled as the ‘enemy of the people’, for an audience of Republicans and floating voters who are allowed to ask him questions.