E. Jean Carroll’s civil rape and defamation trial against former president Donald Trump came to a head in its last few days in the courtroom. The trial began on April 25, 2023 in federal court in the U.S. District Court.
The trial took place within the Southern District of New York. On Monday, the jury began its deliberations in the lawsuit. It was expected that by Tuesday, the court would reach a verdict. On Tuesday, Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation.
In the closing arguments, Carroll claimed that Donald Trump raped her in a New York department store in the 1990s. Decades after the alleged rape happened, Carroll faced scrutiny for coming forward about her assault.
Many questioned the timing, as the former president was in office in mid-2019 when she opened up the case. However, this is very common for victims of sexual assault. Carroll was also releasing a tell-all-style book. Trump used this against her, convinced she was only coming forward as a PR stunt to spark interest in her book. However, there are countless reasons why a woman wouldn’t speak about her assault, regardless of Carroll’s successful writing career.
The National Sexual Violence Resource Center says that rape is the most under-reported crime, with 63% of sexual assaults going unreported to the police. It is highly probable that Carroll’s assault falls within these statistics.
There are a number of reasons why women choose not to come forward about abuse. They may be scared of their perpetrator, worried about the repercussions or feeling helpless within our system. This is completely understandable, specifically in Carroll’s case.
According to statistics conducted by the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network or RAINN, “One out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime.” Sexual violence has also proven to have long-term effects on victims. These statistics prove that it is probable that Carroll is a victim since rape is unfortunately so common.
Sexual violence has also proven to have long-term effects on victims. These long-term effects could be another reason why Carroll had not brought her assault to light before. Her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said that “self-blame” is a huge factor as to why Carroll was kept from going to the police prior to the trial for decades.
Carroll says she felt inspired by the late-2017 #MeToo movement to tell her story publicly. As an advice columnist and writer with the magazine Elle, Carroll’s career was very involved in her assault. It is understandable why Carroll may not have felt comfortable sharing this before, especially against a man with so much influence. Carroll needed to be empowered by this movement to tell her story.
Carroll made her public claim shortly after New York passed a law that allowed survivors to sue years after their alleged sexual assault. Since so much time had passed, this may have been another reason why Carroll would not have been inclined to come forward sooner. At its core, raping is an act of abusing power over someone else, resulting in the victim feeling powerless.
As we have already established, plenty of victims do not come forward until long after the time of their abuse, limiting their rights to a trial due to an expired statute of limitations. Carroll is no exception to this. RAINN approximates a whopping 70% of victims experiencing moderate to “severe distress” after the time of their assault, which is a larger percentage than any other violent crime.
Trump did not attend the trial, claiming he missed it because he did not rape Carroll, though in Kaplan’s final rebuttal, the lawyer argued Trump’s failure to appear served as an admission of guilt.
Trump, on the other hand, said he would not have raped her because she is “not his type.” He and his lawyers argue that she is “ripping off” a Law & Order SVU episode. Carroll seeks financial compensation for her damages, asking Trump to retract his statements about her, which she says are defamatory.
Trump is required to pay $5 million to Carroll, however, it is unclear if this will have long-term effects on Trump politically. As the New York courts saw, we must continue to hold Trump accountable for his inexcusable and disgusting actions.
Now that Trump has been found liable, it is essential to believe Carroll as a victim and as an empowered woman who came forward against a powerful public figure. Trump has been known in the past for making gross and misogynistic comments, even bragging about sexual assault. We cannot keep making excuses for the men in our society who put women in these difficult and traumatic positions.
