The E. Jean Carroll lawsuit, and rape allegation against Trump, explained

Editor’s note, May 9: A jury found former President Donald Trump guilty of sexual abuse and defamation, and awarded E. Jean Carroll $5 million. Read Vox’s latest coverage of the verdict here. The story below was originally published on April 24 and last updated on April 27.

Former President Donald Trump is the subject of another court case this week, this time centering on allegations that he raped the writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s, a claim he’s denied. The case renews the scrutiny on more than 20 sexual misconduct allegations that have been brought against Trump, and adds to the legal troubles he’s fielding on everything from allegedly falsifying business records to interfering in the presidential election.

The lawsuit filed by Carroll is a civil one, meaning Trump would have to pay damages if a jury agrees with her claims, but it doesn’t put him at risk of jail time. Carroll has also asked for Trump to retract the denials he’s made of the rape allegation if she wins the case.

The two issues Carroll has raised in the suit include a claim of battery, citing psychological harms she’s experienced because of Trump’s alleged sexual assault, and a claim of defamation, due to the comments he’s made about her manufacturing the allegation. Trump’s counsel, meanwhile, has sought to argue that Carroll is raising this allegation for political reasons and for personal fame. Additionally, they’ve questioned why Carroll doesn’t recall the exact date and time of the incident, something she’s said she wishes she remembers.

A panel of anonymous jurors will have to decide if Trump is liable on both claims, effectively determining if he should be held accountable for the rape allegation Carroll has levied. Because this is a civil case, the jurors don’t have to determine whether he committed an act beyond a reasonable doubt. Rather, they have to decide if there is a preponderance of evidence that Trump assaulted and defamed Carroll.

On Wednesday, Carroll took the stand and spoke about the alleged assault. “I am here because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it, he said it didn’t happen,” Carroll said in her testimony. Two other women who’ve accused Trump of sexual misconduct, businesswoman Jessica Leeds and People magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff, could also testify, further highlighting his problematic treatment of women. Trump, meanwhile, is not required to take the stand, and it’s unclear if he will choose to do so.

A win for Carroll in this case could ultimately send a strong message about Trump’s history of alleged sexual assault and underscore the importance of a new New York law, which allows survivors to pursue a lawsuit involving such allegations years after an incident occurred.

For survivors of sexual assault, any measure of accountability for public figures can have a major impact. “It’s really significant for targets of sexual violence to know that, no matter how powerful the person is, no matter how long ago that happened, the courts are going to take seriously the claims that you have,” Laura Beth Nielsen, a sociology professor and director of legal studies at Northwestern University, told Vox.

Carroll alleges that Trump raped her after they ran into each other at a department store in the 1990s. She first published the allegations in 2019 in a New York magazine article excerpting her book, What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal.

In the article, Carroll, who had a television show responding to audience questions, said she spoke with Trump after he recognized her as the “advice lady” when they were both in the department store, Bergdorf Goodman. After their run-in, Trump said he needed her help picking a gift for a woman in his life, ultimately heading to the lingerie department.

Once there, according to Carroll’s allegations, Trump convinced Carroll to go to the dressing room, where he pushed her against a wall and put his mouth on hers. Carroll pushed him away, but he allegedly continued to force himself onto her, pulling down her tights, groping her, and raping her, she says. The description bears striking similarities to other allegations made about Trump involving forcible kissing and groping. Trump has denied this and other allegations.

Carroll explained that she did not go to police when the incident happened, and did not come forward sooner due to concerns that she’d be dismissed. At the time, she told two friends about the incident, both of whom confirmed to New York magazine that she’d relayed the assault to them. Carroll has also said that her decision to speak publicly about the alleged attack changed when allegations against other prominent men like Harvey Weinstein began to emerge.

Trump has issued multiple denials of the allegations in the years since, saying on Truth Social last fall that Carroll’s claims were a “hoax and a lie,” and a “complete con job.”

Carroll filed two suits against Trump after going public with the allegations. The first, which accused him of defaming her by denigrating her allegations, has been stalled in court, while the second suit, which addresses both battery and defamation, is the one that’s currently taking place.

The case puts allegations of Trump’s misconduct toward women back into the spotlight and heightens the focus on his legal woes.

According to a Business Insider count, 26 women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct. This list includes model Amy Dorris, who said he forcibly kissed and groped her in 1997; businesswoman Jessica Leeds, who said he reached up her skirt and groped her in the 1970s; and People magazine reporter Natasha Stoynoff, who said he pushed her against a wall and forcibly kissed her in 2005. Trump has denied all of these allegations and often sought to undercut the women making them by criticizing their looks and suggesting they’re not his type.

If the jury finds Trump liable, Carroll’s case could send a strong signal about the broader allegations against him.

Additionally, the suit shows the impact of a new New York law, which was passed in 2022 to extend the statute of limitations for pursuing legal claims of sexual assault. The 2022 law, known as the Adult Survivors Act, enables people to file civil claims regarding past allegations of sexual assault including those that happened beyond the state’s statute of limitations. It provides a one-year window for survivors to make these claims. which is open until this November. Dozens of cases have been filed already, and more could emerge before the deadline closes this fall.

“I stayed silent for years after I was attacked, and by staying silent lost my chance to hold my attacker accountable,” wrote Carroll in letters to lawmakers advocating for the passage of the law. In many cases of sexual assault, survivors don’t report immediately because they aren’t prepared to do so, haven’t processed the incident, or are too traumatized in the moment.

Carroll’s could be the latest case to show the impact of policies that give survivors more time to report. Her ability to pursue this suit at all already shows the significance of a proposal like this one. “Being able to get my day in court, finally, is everything to me,” Carroll has said.

Carroll’s lawsuit is also one of myriad legal problems Trump is navigating. In April, a Manhattan grand jury indicted him on 34 counts of falsifying business records. And he is still fielding two federal probes, one about allegedly holding on to classified documents, and one about potential interference into the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election. Finally, there’s also a criminal probe in Georgia regarding whether he tried to illegally change the 2020 election results in the state.

If Trump is found liable on the two claims from Carroll, he’ll have to pay financial damages to her. More broadly, it would mean that a jury believes he should face consequences for her allegation of rape and increase the scrutiny he’s received for his treatment of women.

That’s a problem that has dogged Trump with women voters since 2016, when a bombshell Washington Post report included footage of him bragging about sexual assault. In the 2020 election, exit polls showed that 57 percent of women voted for Biden, while 42 percent voted for Trump. A 2017 CNN poll also found that 61 percent of respondents believed the sexual misconduct allegations against Trump.

The Carroll case compounds the controversies surrounding Trump’s 2024 candidacy, giving ammunition to his opponents who’ve suggested he has too much baggage to run successfully. Additionally, it could result in concrete legal accountability for the former president regarding an allegation of sexual misconduct.

Update, April 27, 2 pm ET: This story was originally published on April 24 and has been updated to include testimony from the court case.