Breaking news: Donald Trump found liable for sexually abusing E Jean Carroll

A US jury has decided that Donald Trump sexually abused writer E Jean Carroll in the 1990s and then defamed her by calling her a liar, dealing a legal blow to the former US president as he seeks re-election in 2024.

The decision was read aloud in a federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, just hours after jurors began deliberating during a seven-day civil trial.

Carroll claimed the former US president sexually assaulted her in a New York City department store in the mid-1990s and then defamed her in a 2019 memoir by dismissing her story as a “con job.”

The ex-president was found not guilty of rape by a nine-member jury on Tuesday, but he was found liable for sexual assault and slander, according to The New York Times, CNN, and other US news agencies.

The jury decided to award the former Elle magazine contributor $5 million in compensation and punitive damages. Trump faces no criminal charges because this was a civil matter.

On Tuesday, his spokesman, Steven Cheung, stated that the former president would file an appeal. That is, he will not be required to pay the awarded damages as long as the judgement is disputed in court.

Trump, who did not attend the New York trial, dismissed Carroll’s charges as part of a political smear campaign to boost sales of her 2019 biography.

Trump promptly responded on Twitter, claiming yet again that he does not know Carroll and calling Tuesday’s decision “a disgrace” and “a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time.”

The former president is now facing criminal charges in New York for a hush-money payment made to a porn star in 2016, as well as a Justice Department probe into his alleged mishandling of secret data.