Barbara Kay: False Allegations of Sexual Assault Leave Shattered Lives in Their Wake

Earlier this month, Donald Trump was awarded the dubious distinction of being the first U.S. president deemed liable for sexual assault. Having pondered writer Jean E. Carroll’s claim, with supporting evidence, that Trump assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in 1996, a Manhattan federal court jury concluded that “Trump committed battery against Carroll when he forcibly raped and groped her.” He was also found guilty of defamation. Carroll was awarded US$5 million for her hardship, but there will be no prison time for Trump, because Carroll’s case was civil, as the criminal statute of limitations had lapsed.

Trump did not even bother showing up for the trial. He calculated that shrugging the trial off as a mere irritation, and continuing to go about his braggadocio business, offered better optics to his base than court-artist drawings, splashed over the nation’s front pages, of him sitting silent and morose under the humiliating barrage of a parade of plaintiff witnesses. If past is prologue with Trump, the verdict won’t greatly affect his political ambitions. -- More...