https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-sexual-assault-carroll_n_645ac6d9e4b018d846ba0a90
‘That Jury's A Joke’: GOP Senators Defend Donald Trump After Sexual Battery Verdict
Republican lawmakers defended former President Donald Trump after he was found liable for sexual assault and defamation in a civil case in New York, in the latest legal bombshell that could haunt the GOP presidential front-runner in 2024.
“That jury’s a joke. The whole case is a joke,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told reporters on Tuesday.
“If someone accuses me of raping them and I didn’t do it, and you’re innocent, of course you’re going to say something about it … it was a joke,” Rubio added of the defamation findings.
Advice columnist E. Jean Carroll testified that Trump raped her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. The jury reached its decision Tuesday after less than three hours of deliberation, finding the ex-president liable for sexual abuse — but not rape — and declaring he owes $5 million in total damages.
Trump, who declined the opportunity to defend himself in court, denied the allegation and called the verdict “A DISGRACE” and “A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!”
In her testimony, Carroll said Trump trapped and assaulted her at a New York luxury department store, pinning his body against hers.
“He had pulled down my tights, and his fingers went into my vagina, and it was extremely painful,” Carroll testified, Politico reported. “Extremely painful because he put his hand inside me and curved his fingers. As I’m sitting here today, I can still feel it.”
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