Judge rejects Trump claim that jury cleared him of rape: “Jury found Trump in fact did exactly that”

Former President Donald Trump won't get another chance to have a new trial in the civil suit with longtime columnist E. Jean Carroll, nor will the $5 million dollars in damages she won be reduced, after federal Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected Trump's bid for a retrial. In May, Trump was found liable for defaming and sexually abusing Carroll, who has long claimed he assaulted her in a department store dressing room in 1996 and subsequently slandered her by publicly refuting her allegations. Since then, Trump has openly denied Caroll's accusations, even filing a counterclaim arguing that she defamed him during a CNN appearance in which she confidently maintained her assertions against him

A lengthy memorandum, which took into account the two separate lawsuits Carroll had filed against the ex-president, acknowledged that the "only point on which Ms. Carroll did not prevail was whether she had proved that Mr. Trump had 'raped' her within the narrow, technical meaning of a particular section of the New York Penal Law."

"The jury's unanimous verdict in Carroll II was almost entirely in favor of Ms. Carroll," the opinion continued, adding, "The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was 'raped' within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump 'raped' her as many people commonly understand the word 'rape.' Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that."