Trump "I Can't Be Charged or Convicted With Rape Again"

Judge clarifies: Yes, Trump was found to have raped E. Jean Carroll
3 min
Former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump leaves
the opening of his campaign headquarters in Manchester, N.H., last month.
(Reba Saldanha/Reuters)
Analysis by Aaron Blake
July 19, 2023 at 1:15 p.m. EDT

After Donald Trump was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming E.
Jean Carroll, his legal team and his defenders lodged a frequent talking
point.

Despite Carroll�s claims that Trump had raped her, they noted, the jury
stopped short of saying he committed that particular offense. Instead,
jurors opted for a second option: sexual abuse.
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�This was a rape claim, this was a rape case all along, and the jury
rejected that � made other findings,� his lawyer, Joe Tacopina, said
outside the courthouse.

A judge has now clarified that this is basically a legal distinction
without a real-world difference. He says that what the jury found Trump did
was in fact rape, as commonly understood.

The filing from Judge Lewis A. Kaplan came as Trump�s attorneys have sought
a new trial and have argued that the jury�s $5 million verdict against
Trump in the civil suit was excessive. The reason, they argue, is that
sexual abuse could be as limited as the �groping� of a victim�s breasts.

Kaplan roundly rejected Trump�s motion Tuesday, calling that argument
�entirely unpersuasive.�
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�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,� � Kaplan wrote.
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He added: �Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear,
the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.�

Kaplan said New York�s legal definition of �rape� is �far narrower� than
the word is understood in �common modern parlance.�

The former requires forcible, unconsented-to penetration with one�s penis.
But he said that the conduct the jury effectively found Trump liable for �
forced digital penetration � meets a more common definition of rape. He
cited definitions offered by the American Psychological Association and the
Justice Department, which in 2012 expanded its definition of rape to
include penetration �with any body part or object.�

Kaplan also flatly rejected the Trump team�s suggestion that the conduct
Trump was found liable for might have been as limited as groping of the
breasts.

The reason? Trump was not accused of that, so the only alleged offense that
would have qualified as �sexual abuse� was forced digital penetration.
Beyond that, Trump was accused of putting his mouth on Carroll�s mouth and
pulling down her tights, which Kaplan noted were not treated as alleged
sexual abuse at trial.

�The jury�s finding of sexual abuse therefore necessarily implies that it
found that Mr. Trump forcibly penetrated her vagina,� Kaplan wrote, calling
it the �only remaining conclusion.�

Kaplan also noted that the verdict form did not ask the jury to decide
exactly what conduct Trump had committed, and that neither prosecutors nor
Trump�s lawyers had requested it to do so.

�Mr. Trump�s attempt to minimize the sexual abuse finding as perhaps
resting on nothing more than groping of Ms. Carroll�s breasts through her
clothing is frivolous,� Kaplan wrote.

He added that the jury clearly found that Trump had � �raped� her in the
sense of that term broader than the New York Penal Law definition.�

The motion was a part of Trump�s efforts to appeal the verdict against him.
That�s an effort that will apparently continue as he faces a separate
defamation lawsuit from Carroll, dealing with claims Trump made about her
allegations while he was still president.

But for now, Trump�s effort to push back has led to a rather remarkable
clarification that severely undercuts his main talking point.