The Anarchist

Misogynist, repeat sex offender, rape accused and felon-Donald Trump is only growing stronger

- Aisha Sultan

NOT so long ago in American politics, if a federal judge stated that a political candidate had raped a woman, it would have been an immediate career-ender.

But in this presidential election campaign, it has barely elicited a shrug.

In May 2023, a New York jury found Former President Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll, a journalist and columnist, in 1996. The jury ordered him to pay $5 million in damages—the first of two multimillion fines he has been ordered to pay Carroll. (He currently owes her in excess of $90 million, which have been accruing in interest as Trump has been continuing his appeals).

Trump’s attorneys had appealed against the first verdict, arguing he had not been found guilty of “rape”. The jury had said that Trump was guilty of penetrating Carroll with his fingers in a dressing room of a departmental store. The judge rejected Trump’s appeal and stated the abuse could be considered rape, as it is commonly understood.

“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’,” Judge Lewis A. Kaplan wrote in a ruling in July, 2023, rejecting the appeal. “Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”