The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s election interference case said on Friday that she will not allow for a “carnival atmosphere” in her courtroom and warned that if he makes further inflammatory statements, the case may go to court faster. The defense had asked for a protective order after statements by the former president. Christina Ruffini reports.
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Lori Vallow Daybell, the “doomsday mom,” was sentened for the murders of her children, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow. Her husband, Chad Daybell, will face trial in 2024. Jonathan Vigliotti reports.
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American actor Kevin Spacey was found not guilty Wednesday of all the sexual assault charges he was facing in a U.K. trial. The actor had faced nine sexual offense charges related to incidents reported by four men that allegedly took place between 2001 and 2013.
The Academy Award-winning actor had pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
Spacey, 64, was acquitted in London’s Southwark Crown Court of charges including sexual assault, causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent and causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity.
Actor Kevin Spacey leaves Southwark Crown Court after he was found not guilty on charges related to allegations of sexual offenses, in London, July 26, 2023.
Reuters/Susannah Ireland
All four of the alleged victims — who can’t be named under U.K. law — testified during the trial, as did Spacey himself, who said he was crushed by the allegations.
In their testimony, the four men described Spacey a “sexual bully” and a predator.
Spacey starred in the Netflix series “House of Cards” until he was fired in 2017 after fellow actor Anthony Rapp accused him of prior sexual misconduct. A civil jury in Massachusetts later found him not liable on those allegations.
Former President Donald Trump’s trial over his alleged mishandling of classified documents will begin on May 20, 2024, Judge Aileen Cannon said in an order Friday. CBS News political director Fin Gomez has more.
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The Justice Department plans to appeal the 18-year-prison sentence handed down for Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right Oath Keepers, in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, as well as those of other Oath Keepers, because the terms were not as long as what prosecutors had sought, according to court papers filed Wednesday.
Although Rhodes received a lengthy sentence for seditious conspiracy and other convictions, the 18-year term was less than the 25 years the Justice Department had asked for in one of the most serious cases to go to trial in the Capitol riot and below the range recommended under federal guidelines. Still, Rhodes’ sentence was the longest handed down so far in over 1,000 Capitol riot cases.
Defendants routinely appeal their convictions and sentences, but it is more unusual for prosecutors to challenge the length of a prison term imposed by judges who have wide discretion when handing down punishments.
Rhodes’ attorney, James Lee Bright, called the government’s decision to appeal “surprising.” At his sentencing hearing in May, a defiant Rhodes claimed to be a “political prisoner,” criticized prosecutors and the Biden administration and tried to play down his actions on Jan. 6.
The Justice Department filed notices in court that they they intend to appeal the sentences of other Oath Keepers, including Florida chapter leader Kelly Meggs, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy alongside Rhodes and sentenced to 12 years behind bars.
Three other Oath Keepers tried with Rhodes were acquitted of the sedition charge but convicted of other felonies. Four Oath Keepers were convicted of the seditious conspiracy charge at a second trial in January.
An attorney for Meggs declined to comment Wednesday.
In May, prosecutors had argued before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta that Rhodes, who is 58, qualified for a more lengthy sentence under federal anti-terrorism laws given the “threat of harm and the historic significance” of his crimes. Mehta agreed to impose the terrorism enhancement, noting that Rhodes did not demonstrate “acceptance of responsibility” for his role in the attack. It was the first time the enhancement had been applied to a Jan. 6 defendant.
But the judge ultimately went below — in some cases far below — the sentence prosecutors were seeking for each defendant.
The Justice Department’s announcement came after it suffered a rare setback in a related case involving Oath Keepers associates. A former “Jesus Christ Superstar” actor was acquitted Wednesday of conspiring with members of the far-right extremist group to obstruct Congress in the Capitol attack.
James Beeks — a former Oath Keeper and Florida resident who was playing Judas in the traveling production of the musical when he was arrested — was cleared of conspiracy to obstruct Congress’ certification of the 2020 election and civil disorder after a trial in federal court.
Mehta, appointed to the bench by former President Obama, was also the judge in Beeks’ case. He ruled Wednesday there was little evidence that Beeks actually planned ahead of Jan. 6 or was aware of the group’s alleged conspiracy, according to WUSA Reporter Jordan Fischer. “I just can’t get there based on this stipulated evidence,” Mehta said, according to Fischer.
However, Mehta convicted Beeks’ co-defendant, Ohio resident Donovan Crowl, of the same charges after hearing evidence without a jury. Crowl had pleaded not guilty.
Beeks is only the second Jan. 6 defendant to be acquitted of all charges after a trial. Beeks represented himself at trial, though he was assisted by a lawyer who served as stand-by counsel and delivered his closing argument. Approximately 100 others have been found guilty of at least one count after a trial decided by a jury or judge, and more than 600 have pleaded guilty.
Beeks and Crowl — who was a member of an Ohio militia — opted for what’s known as a a stipulated bench trial, in which the defense and prosecutors agree to a set of facts and comply with a judge’s decision on the defendants’ guilt. Such trials allow defendants to admit to certain facts while maintaining a right to appeal any conviction.
Prosecutors had previously charged Beeks with other lower-level offenses, including illegally entering the Capitol. The pair had been indicted on multiple charges, but the parties agreed last week that the bench trial would only decide two felony counts — conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and civil disorder. In exchange, the government dropped the remaining counts.
Prosecutors say Beeks and Crowl were part of a group of Oath Keepers wearing paramilitary gear who stormed the Capitol alongside the mob of Trump supporters. Beeks joined the Oath Keepers in December 2020 and drove to Washington from Florida before meeting up with a group of extremists ahead of the riot, prosecutors said.
Beeks, who was also a Michael Jackson impersonator, wore a jacket from Jackson’s “Bad” World Tour along with a helmet and was carrying a homemade shield during the riot, according to court papers.
Mehta said Beeks — unlike other Oath Keepers charged with riot-related crimes — didn’t post any messages on social media or exchange text messages with other extremists that could establish what his “state of mind” was leading up to the Capitol riot. The judge also cited a lack of evidence about what Beeks did inside the Capitol that could support a conviction for interfering with police.
“His actions must rise and fall on their own,” the judge said.
Beeks was arrested in November 2021 while he was traveling in Milwaukee with the “Jesus Christ Superstar” tour. He told reporters after the verdict that it “feels like a huge burden” has been lifted of his shoulders.
He acknowledged that he had joined the Oath Keepers through the group’s website but said he never met or communicated with any of his alleged co-conspirators before Jan. 6. He said never knew of any plan to attack the Capitol and mistakenly believed the Oath Keepers “were the good guys.”
“I met up with the wrong people,” he said. “I lost my whole career. (Jan. 6) is like a scarlet letter.”
Crowl was part of the Ohio State Regular Militia led by Jessica Watkins, who was acquitted of seditious conspiracy but convicted of other serious charges in the trial alongside Rhodes. In December 2022, Crowl sent a message in a group chat that included Watkins that said “law abiding citizens are fix’n to ‘act out of character’… Time for talk’in is over.”
Crowl’s attorney, Carmen Hernandez, said her client was exercising his First Amendment free speech rights on Jan. 6 without any intent to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
“His conduct was no different than that of many Americans who’ve gone to Congress to peacefully protest and have not been charged with felonies,” Hernandez wrote in an email.
Robert Legare and Scott MacFarlane contributed to this report.
London – Kevin Spacey’s trial began Wednesday in London, with the Hollywood actor facing charges of sexual assault, indecent assault and a more serious offense of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Spacey has pleaded not guilty to all of the 12 charges against him.
The 63-year-old arrived at London’s Southwark Crown Court and smiled and waved at media gathered outside the building as he waked in. The trial is expected to last four weeks.
Actor Kevin Spacey, right, arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London, England, June 28, 2023.
Dan Kitwood/Getty
Spacey has repeatedly denied the allegations made by four men who are now in their 30s and 40s over acts they accuse Spacey of committing during a 12-year period between 2001 and 2013. Some of the charges date back to a period when the actor was the artistic director at London’s Old Vic Theatre, a position he held for more than a decade before his departure in 2015.
The alleged victims cannot be identified under English law.
An internal 2017 investigation by the theater resulted in 20 anonymous claims of alleged inappropriate behavior by Spacey during his time as its artistic director.
The Oscar-winner’s “stardom and status at The Old Vic may have prevented people, and in particular junior staff or young actors, from feeling that they could speak up or raise a hand for help,” a statement from the Old Vic said at the time.
Spacey’s glittering Hollywood career largely came to an end in 2017 when actor Anthony Rapp publicly accused him of sexual misconduct in a separate case, alleging that Spacey had targeted him when he was just 14 years old.
In October last year, a New York court dismissed a $40 million civil suit brought against Spacey by Rapp for alleged sexual misconduct dating back to the late 1980s. A judge had ruled separately that Rapp brought the case too late for criminal charges.
Charges of indecent assault and battery were also dropped against the actor in a separate case in Massachusetts in 2019, after a young man who had accused him declined to testify in the case.
In an interview earlier this month with German magazine Zeit, Spacey insisted that it was his work that “will be remembered,” and he expressed a desire to revive his career should he be cleared of the charges against him in the U.K.
“I know that there are people right now who are ready to hire me the moment I am cleared of these charges in London. The second that happens, they’re ready to move forward,” Spacey said.
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Actor Jonathan Majors‘ domestic violence case will go to trial Aug. 3, a Manhattan judge said Tuesday, casting him in a real-life courtroom drama as his idled Hollywood career hangs in the balance.
Majors’ accuser alleges he pulled her finger, twisted her arm behind her back, struck and cut her ear, and pushed her into a vehicle, causing her to fall backward, during a March confrontation in New York City. The woman was treated at a hospital for minor head and neck injuries, police said.
Majors’ attorney, Priya Chaudhry, said Tuesday that she provided prosecutors with video evidence showing the female accuser attacked her client, not the other way around. The woman has not been named in court records.
“Last week, we delivered additional compelling evidence to the District Attorney, clearly proving Grace Jabbari’s assault on Jonathan Majors and not the other way around,” Chaudhry said in a statement to CBS News. “This evidence includes videos of Ms. Jabbari’s frenzied attack on Mr. Majors and his running away from her.
“We also provided photographs illustrating the injuries she inflicted on Mr. Majors and photos of his clothing torn as a direct consequence of Ms. Jabbari’s violent actions,” Chaudhry said.
Chaudhry said that in light of the new evidence she is requesting the district attorney dismiss all charges against Majors and initiate proceedings against his accuser to hold her “accountable for her crimes.” In lieu of a decision, Chaudhry requested that Majors’ case go to trial as soon as possible.
Jonathan Majors attends the “Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania” UK Gala Screening at BFI IMAX Waterloo on February 16, 2023 in London, England.
Lia Toby / Getty Images
Chaudhry has also accused police and prosecutors of racial bias against Majors, who is Black. She said a white police officer got in Majors’ face and taunted him when he tried showing the officer injuries that he said the woman caused.
Majors had been a fast-rising Hollywood star with major roles in recent hits like “Creed III” and “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania.” But in the wake of his arrest, the U.S. Army pulled TV commercials starring Majors, saying it was “deeply concerned” by the allegations. Disney last month postponed Majors’ upcoming Marvel film “Avengers: Kang Dynasty” from May 2025 to May 2026. He is also slated to appear in “Avengers: Secret Wars” in 2027.
Judge Rachel Pauley wished the actor “best of luck” as she scheduled his trial. “Yes, ma’am,” Majors said, standing with his lawyers in front of Pauley’s bench in Manhattan’s domestic violence court.
Majors, 33, is charged with misdemeanors, including assault, and could be sentenced to up to a year in jail if convicted.
Tuesday’s hearing was his first time in court since just after his March 25 arrest in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. He appeared by video at a hearing last month where prosecutors said they were revising the assault charge to reflect the accuser’s perspective. A police officer’s account was used in the original version.
Before his case was called Tuesday, Majors watched from the courtroom gallery with his lawyers and his girlfriend Meagan Good, who stars in the “Shazam!” movies, as two men in unrelated cases had their domestic violence charges thrown out.
Before scheduling Majors’ trial, the judge issued a sealed decision that prompted Chaudhry to withdraw court papers she’d filed challenging the case. Pauley handed copies of her ruling to Majors’ lawyers and prosecutors but did not discuss any details in open court.
Majors, who plays villain Kang the Conqueror in the Marvel films, carried his personal Bible and a poetry journal into court. He smiled at times, but said little other than his brief exchange with the judge, which lasted all of three minutes.
Majors must continue to abide by a protection order barring him from contact with his accuser. A warrant could be issued for his arrest if he does not show up for his trial date, the judge said.
A respected professor dies in a hot tub. Two friends are at the scene. Only one survives to tell the tale. “48 Hours” contributor Jonathan Vigliotti reports.
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When Special Counsel Jack Smith announced last week that a federal grand jury had indicted former President Donald Trump, he made a point of saying that the government would “seek a speedy trial in this matter, consistent with the public interest.” Whether Trump gets one could determine whether he goes to prison for his alleged crimes.
In just over 18 months, Trump could be serving as president again, at which point he’d be in a position to attempt to pardon himself or instruct the Department of Justice to dismiss its case against him. That might seem like a long way away, but for the nation’s tortoiselike federal-court system, it’s not. Complex, high-profile cases sometimes take years to get to trial, and former federal prosecutors told me that, even under the fastest scenarios, Trump’s trial won’t begin for several months and potentially for more than a year. Trump may well be waiting for a trial when voters cast their presidential ballots next fall. Although Smith will do all he can to hurry up the prosecution, the former president’s legal team could move to dismiss the charges—though that would almost certainly be futile—and file other pretrial motions in order to bog down the process.
“There’s a pretty obvious incentive from [Trump’s] point of view for delaying this,” Kristy Parker, a lawyer at the advocacy group Protect Democracy who tried cases for 15 years at the Justice Department, told me. “That is especially true if he understands that the evidence against him is significant and that the chances of him being convicted of these offenses are pretty high.”
Different federal courts operate at different speeds. The Eastern District of Virginia, for example, has long been known as “the rocket docket”; it’s raced through even high-profile cases such as the 2018 trial of Trump’s former campaign chair Paul Manafort. Trump’s trial will occur in the Southern District of Florida and will reportedly be overseen by one of his own appointees, Judge Aileen Cannon. “Federal judges have enormous control over their courtrooms and over the schedule and timing of their cases,” Chuck Rosenberg, a former U.S. attorney in Virginia and Texas, told me. “Some are very good at docket management, and some are not.” Having served as a judge for less than three years, Cannon hasn’t developed much of a reputation either way.
Cannon presided over a lawsuit Trump filed last year after the FBI executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago estate. She issued a series of rulings favorable to him. Representative Dan Goldman, a New York Democrat and a former federal prosecutor who served as a top counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during Trump’s first impeachment, told me it was “concerning” that Cannon would apparently run the former president’s trial. “It was pretty clear that her initial rulings did not follow the law but followed some preconceived personal and political viewpoints, and there’s no place for that in the judiciary,” Goldman said. Indeed, the conservative Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a pair of Cannon’s decisions, including one that barred the government from accessing some of the documents that the FBI recovered from Mar-a-Lago.
Another former Democratic co-counsel during the Trump impeachment, Norm Eisen, has called for Cannon to recuse herself or be taken off the case.
If Cannon stays on the case, she will have fairly wide latitude to set its tempo. She will be responsible for scheduling any pretrial motions and hearings, determining what evidence is admissible, and ruling on potentially time-intensive challenges that Trump’s lawyers could bring.
In their indictment, the prosecutors estimated that a trial would take 21 days in court—not an especially long trial for a case of such magnitude. The timeline suggests the government believes it has a pretty “straightforward” argument, Parker said.
The fact that this case centers on documents Trump had in his possession—illegally, the government argues—means that he may have already seen a significant portion of the evidence the Justice Department has on him. Theoretically, that could speed up the discovery process that occurs before any trial. But cases that involve classified documents tend to take longer, former prosecutors told me, because the court will have to determine who can access sensitive materials and how to protect government secrets before and during a trial. Most of the pretrial rulings that Cannon could make are subject to appeal, and those delays can quickly add up.
Another scheduling complication is that Trump is facing another criminal trial, in New York, on charges that he falsified business records, and he could face yet another indictment and trial in Georgia related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Trump’s Manhattan trial is scheduled for March, which would be about 10 months after his indictment in that case and right in the middle of the Republican primary season. (Although the cases are in different jurisdictions, the 10-month lag could be a rough guide for how long Trump’s federal trial will take to get under way.)
One of the biggest questions Cannon may face is whether the election should factor into her decisions about how soon to schedule a trial and whether to agree to delays that Trump might seek. Parker argued that the election is a legitimate consideration. “We are in uncharted territory,” she said, “and quite frankly, I would think that a court would want to try to get this matter resolved ahead of that point.” Even if Trump’s trial concludes before the 2024 election, however, it’s unlikely that (if he’s convicted) his appeals will be exhausted by then.
The former prosecutors I spoke with could only guess at what would happen if Trump were elected president while awaiting trial or sentencing. The case would likely proceed after the election, and the Constitution doesn’t explicitly bar convicted felons from taking office. Whether Trump could pardon himself is a matter of debate; no president has ever tried, but in 1974, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion stating that a presidential self-pardon would be unconstitutional. Even if Trump did not attempt to pardon himself, though, he could lean on or simply direct his appointees in the Justice Department to drop the case against him. He’d surely argue that, by electing him, voters had rendered a verdict more legitimate than any jury’s.
For all the legal wrangling to come, Trump’s ultimate fate may yet rest with the voters. If he is the Republican nominee, they will have what amounts to the final word on his future, political and otherwise. “These cases are important, but they are not magic wands,” Parker said. “They will not relieve the voting public of its problems.”
Prince Harry will make an appearance in court Tuesday as he sues one of Britain’s tabloid newspapers for phone hacking and illegal intrusion into his private life. The publisher admits phone hacking once took place at its newspapers but denies that the Duke of Sussex was ever a target. Holly Williams spoke with media lawyer Matthew Gill about what Harry hoped to achieve by taking the very public case to trial.
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Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. has settled accusations that he raped a woman in a New York City hotel a decade ago, according to court records. Tuesday’s revelation came as a trial was set to begin in federal court.
The Oscar-winning “Jerry Maguire” star had insisted through lawyers that his encounter with the woman was consensual after the two met at a nearby restaurant in Manhattan.
The woman had proceeded anonymously until last week, when Judge Paul A. Crotty ruled that she would have to reveal her name at trial. She said in her lawsuit that Gooding raped her in his hotel room after convincing her to stop at the room so he could change clothing. His lawyers, though, insisted that it was consensual sex and that she bragged afterward to others that she had sex with a celebrity.
The lawsuit sought $6 million in damages. Gloria Allred, one of several attorneys representing the woman, declined to comment to CBS News about the reported settlement. Other lawyers, including those representing Gooding, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The trial was to start with jury selection in New York federal court. Minutes after jurors were to begin assembling in a courtroom, a calendar entry in the official court record said: “TRIAL OFF.” It added: “Reason for cancellation (on consent): the parties have resolved the matter.”
The lawsuit was filed against a man who authorities say has been accused of committing sexual misconduct against more than 30 other women, including groping, unwanted kissing and other inappropriate behavior.
Late last week, the judge seemed to strengthen the woman’s hand at trial and in settlement negotiations by ruling that he would let three women testify that they also were subjected to sudden sexual assaults or attempted sexual assaults after meeting Gooding in social settings such as festivals, bars, nightclubs and restaurants.
One of the women who had planned to testify at the trial was Kelsey Harbert, who told police Gooding fondled her without her consent at Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge near Times Square in 2019.
Harbert said last year after Gooding pleaded guilty in New York state court to a charge that spared him from jail or a criminal history that never getting her day in court was “more disappointing than words can say.”
In April 2022, Gooding was permitted to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, admitting that he forcibly kissed a worker at a New York nightclub in 2018.
By staying out of trouble and completing six months of alcohol and behavioral counseling, Gooding was permitted to withdraw his guilty plea and plead guilty to a non-criminal harassment violation, eliminating his criminal record and preventing further penalties.
The impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) will begin no later than Aug. 28, lawmakers said Monday, teeing up the first such proceedings in nearly a half century.
A committee of seven state Senators will meet next month to adopt a slate of rules for the impeachment proceedings. A dozen lawmakers from the state House will make the case to their colleagues that Paxton abused his office.
It’s unclear if Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton (R), will recuse herself from the proceedings.
“We will manage this process with the weight and reverence it deserves and requires,” state Rep. Andrew Murr (R), the chairman of the House investigation, told reporters Monday. He did not comment if Paxton’s wife would participate in the trial.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks to reporters in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on April 26, 2022.
STEFANI REYNOLDS via Getty Images
Paxton, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, has lambasted the effort as a political attack and denied any wrongdoing, vowing to vehemently defend himself during the impeachment trial. It’s unclear who will represent him.
“The ugly spectacle in the Texas House today confirmed the outrageous impeachment plot against me was never meant to be fair or just,” he said in a statement on Saturday. “It was a politically motivated sham from the beginning.”
Paxton has been suspended from his official duties while the trial moves forward. His top deputy, Brent Webster, is currently leading his office in the interim although Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) will be required to name a more formal temporary replacement.
It’s a monumental episode in Texas politics and a moment of reckoning for the state’s Republican majority. Only two other officials have ever been impeached and removed from office in state history, and the latest was nearly 50 years ago, according to The Dallas Morning News.
The investigation into Paxton’s behavior began in March after the attorney general reached a $3.3 million settlement with former staffers that sued him, saying they were fired in retaliation after accusing him of crimes. Paxton asked the Texas Legislature to fund the agreement, but lawmakers balked at the request and said there wasn’t enough explanation as to why the state should foot the bill.
Paxton has attacked Phelan, the Republican Texas House Speaker, in recent days, accusing him of being drunk during a session last week.
Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students, appeared in court Monday and faced family members of his alleged victims. A judge entered a plea of not guilty for Kohberger. Lilia Luciano has more.
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A jury in Idaho found Lori Vallow Daybell guilty on all charges, including the murders of her two children and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of her husband’s first wife. “48 Hours” contributor Jonathan Vigliotti takes you inside the case that gripped the nation.
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A federal jury in New York found former President Donald Trump liable for battery and defamation in a civil trial stemming from allegations he raped the writer E. Jean Carroll in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.
She was awarded $5 million total in damages.
The jury, made up of six men and three women, got the case earlier Tuesday and deliberated for less than three hours. The jury’s decision had to be unanimous. In closing arguments, Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan reminded the jury that for the battery charge, “all you need is that it is more probable than not” that Trump attacked Carroll to find him liable, which is a much lower standard than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard applied in criminal trials.
The jury found Trump liable for sexual assault, but not rape, and also found that he defamed Carroll.
After the verdict, Trump posted on Truth Social: “I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS. THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE – A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!”
In two videos posted to his Truth Social account later Wednesday night, Trump called the verdict a “disgrace” and a “sham” and said that he and his legal team will be “appealing this decision.”
Court sketch of E. Jean Carroll and attorneys in her civil lawsuit against former President Donald Trump.
Jane Rosenberg
Before Judge Lewis Kaplan discharged the jurors, who remained anonymous throughout the trial, he thanked them and told them they are now free to speak publicly about their service. However, he advised them against doing so. If they do, he barred them from identifying any of their peers on the panel.
As the jurors exited the courtroom one last time, it appeared none of them made eye contact with Carroll on their way out. After the jurors had gone, Carroll’s attorneys embraced her. Trump was not in the courtroom for the verdict or any of the trial.
During the eight-day trial, attorneys for Carroll pressed a case to the jury laying out how her allegations fit a pattern, or “modus operandi,” for Trump. In addition to witnesses who said Carroll confided in them after the incident, the jury heard from two other women who described Trump suddenly turning casual confrontations into sexual misconduct. They also watched the “Access Hollywood” video clip in which Trump could be heard crudely describing grabbing women by their genitals.
Ahead of the verdict on Tuesday morning, Trump posted on Truth Social that he was “not allowed to speak or defend myself, even as hard nosed reporters scream questions about this case at me.”
Trump was permitted to testify in his own defense, but chose not to. Jurors were shown Trump’s videotaped deposition from October in which he repeatedly denied the accusations.
Carroll accused Trump of assaulting and raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in New York City in the mid-1990s, and then defaming her after she published her account in 2019. Trump, who has claimed he never met Carroll and “she’s not my type,” forcefully denied her accusations.
E. Jean Carroll, center, walks out of Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, May 9, 2023, in New York. A jury has found Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing the advice columnist in 1996, awarding her $5 million.
Seth Wenig / AP
His statements about Carroll were core to her defamation claim. The jury was shown a late-1980s photo that appears to depict Trump and Carroll in conversation with their then-spouses. They also watched the moment in Trump’s videotaped deposition when he was shown the photo and incorrectly identified Carroll as his ex-wife Marla Maples. Defense attorney Roberta Kaplan argued it was proof Carroll was indeed Trump’s “type.”
After Trump was told of mistaking the women during his deposition, he said the photo was “blurry.”
Carroll testified during the trial, saying she bumped into Trump while exiting the store one evening. She said Trump recognized her, saying “Hey, you’re that advice lady,” referring to a magazine column she wrote for nearly three decades. She said she replied, “Hey, you’re that real estate tycoon.”
Carroll, then 52, said Trump, then 50, wanted advice on a gift purchase for a girl. She described pleasant, “joshing” banter as they perused the store, even after he suggested they go to the lingerie department.
Carroll, who wrote for “Saturday Night Live” in the 1980s, said the encounter seemed like a comedic scene, until things took a dark turn when they went to a dressing room.
Carroll said Trump pushed her against the wall, her head slamming against it. She said Trump forcefully penetrated her with his hand, causing severe pain, and then penetrated her with his penis.
Carroll said she managed to force her knee between them, pushing him away before leaving as fast as she could.
She said she told two other people about the alleged attack soon after, her friends Lisa Birnbach and Carol Martin. Both were called to testify during the trial, delivering testimony that largely matched Carroll’s recollection.
Trump attorney Joe Tacopina showed jurors emails and text messages between Carroll, Martin and Birnbach that appeared to show their animosity to Trump, who was then the president, as the defense tried to portray a politically motivated effort by the trio to use Carroll’s story to tarnish him.
Tacopina laid out the case as one in which Trump had “no story to tell,” because he said Carroll’s claim was entirely made up. In her closing arguments, Kaplan said the jury had to decide who was telling the truth: “the nonstop liar” Trump, or 11 people who testified under oath on Carroll’s behalf.
Ultimately, the jury believed her.
What is the difference between sexual battery and rape?
The jury chose to go with sexual battery instead of rape, potentially for a variety of reasons, CBS News legal analyst Rikki Klieman explained.
.@rikkijklieman explains the difference between rape and sexual battery after a jury finds Trump liable for battery and defamation.
“In many jurisdictions, that kind of penetration of the vagina by a finger would also be considered rape, but perhaps this jury felt differently.” pic.twitter.com/lBZF1Hn1YZ
Klieman defined sexual battery as “a forcible touching, plus more.”
One possible reason the jury chose sexual battery over rape is they came to a “compromise” about what actually happened, Klieman explained. Klieman said Carroll was very “emphatic” about a finger, and what that felt like.
“In many jurisdictions, that kind of penetration of the vagina by a finger would also be considered rape, but perhaps this jury felt differently,” she said. “There is no doubt that they saw and heard enough to say, ‘Well perhaps it wasn’t rape for all kinds of extraneous reasons,’ but nonetheless they felt that that, one question down, they could find it a sexual abuse. They didn’t go further down the list of the judge’s “lesser” included offenses, as we lawyers would say.”
A Los Angeles judge on Tuesday denied a motion for a new trial from lawyers for rapper Tory Lanez, who was convicted of three felonies in December for shooting hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion in the feet and wounding her.
Superior Court Judge Herriford rejected arguments from lawyers for Lanez that evidence was wrongly admitted at the trial he presided over. He said that the exclusion of the disputed evidence would not have made a difference at the trial.
Lanez, 30, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, will now be sentenced for convictions of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, having a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle, and discharging a firearm with gross negligence. He could get up to 22 years in prison and faces deportation to his native Canada.
As he was led from the courtroom back to jail after a hearing on the motion a day earlier, he pleaded with Herriford to help him, saying, “I could be your son. I could be your brother.”
Motions for a new trial with the same judge filed immediately afterward are a common precursor to appealing to a higher court, which Lanez’s attorneys plan to do. The motions are rarely successful.
Lanez’s lawyers asserted that a post from his Instagram account was improperly admitted into evidence. They said that Megan’s testimony — which stated that Lanez urged her not to go to police because he was on parole and would be in serious trouble — was both untrue and an improper allowance of prior bad acts. They also said DNA evidence that prosecutors used to argue Lanez was the likely shooter fell well short of industry standards.
Lanez’s attorneys were disappointed from the start of Monday’s all-day oral arguments on their motion.
They had an elaborate presentation prepared, complete with audio-visuals and witnesses, but Herriford permitted none of it, insisting instead on narrow legal arguments on the precise issues raised, the norm for such motions in California court.
They pleaded at length with Herriford to allow them to present their arguments in the way they had planned.
“I feel that I would be ineffective if we proceeded,” defense attorney Jose Baez said. “Mr. Peterson has the right to due process for which he is entitled.”
They moved on under protest, and later filed a motion to have the judge disqualified.
Lanez’s lawyers, who did not represent him at trial, said the attorney who did, George Mgdesyan, made mistakes in his case because he was given so little time to prepare for trial after the rapper’s previous attorney dropped out.
Megan Thee Stallion, whose legal name is Megan Pete, testified that Lanez fired a handgun at the back of her feet and shouted for her to dance as she walked away from an SUV in which they had been riding in the Hollywood Hills in the summer of 2020.
This combination photo shows Tory Lanez performing at the Festival d’ete de Quebec on Wednesday July 11, 2018, in Quebec City, Canada, left, and Megan Thee Stallion at the premiere of “P-Valley” on Thursday, June 2, 2022, in Los Angeles.
(Photos by Amy Harris, left, Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
Mgdesyan said at trial that Megan was lying in her testimony and that Lanez had not pulled the trigger. He said afterward that there was not sufficient evidence for a conviction.
As had been the case throughout the trial, the courtroom was full of media and Lanez’s fans and family members, with many more outside in the hallway.
The shooting and the trial set off a storm of cultural issues and arguments that peaked during the trial, including the reluctance of Black victims to speak to police, the protection of Black women, gender politics in hip-hop, and online toxicity.
After the verdict was read in December, Lanez’s father, Sonstar Peterson, stood and denounced “the wicked system” that led to his son’s conviction and had to be wrestled from the courtroom.
No sentencing date has been set.
Lanez began releasing mixtapes in 2009 and saw a steady rise in popularity, allowing him to move on to major-label albums. Five of his six studio albums reached the top 10 on Billboard’s album charts.
Megan Thee Stallion was already a major rising star at the time of the shooting, and her prominence has surged since. She won a Grammy for best new artist in 2021, and she had No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 with her own song “Savage,” featuring Beyoncé, and as a guest on Cardi B’s “WAP.”
“Donald Trump’s defense here is essentially that there is a vast conspiracy against him,” E. Jean Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan said in a Manhattan federal courtroom on Monday.
“Does that make any sense at all?” she added in her closing remarks in the civil trial against the former president. Carroll, the longtime Elle columnist and magazine writer, accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-’90s in a 2019 memoir excerpt for New York. Kaplan was posing a question that’s occupied much of the nation’s political attention in the years that have followed. After Carroll filed suit against Trump late last year for battery and defamation, it was one that played out for nine jurors.
On Tuesday, they found the former president liable for sexual abuse and defamation after less than three hours of deliberations, and awarded Carroll $5 million in damages. The jury found Trump not liable for rape.
During her closing argument, Kaplan showed a chart of Carroll’s allegations alongside those of two other women, Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, who testified in the trial. Their accusations of sexual assault, all of which Trump has denied, shared common elements: “Semi-Public Place,” “Grab Suddenly,” and “Not My Type.”
“Three different women, decades apart…but one single pattern of behavior,” Kaplan said. “In that respect, what happened to E. Jean Carroll is not unique.”
Carroll sued Trump in November after the passage of a New York law that granted a one-year window for adult sexual abuse victims to bring lawsuits against their alleged abusers after the statute of limitations has expired. (The trial took place in federal court because Trump now lives in Florida.) Carroll has written about her initial allegation in 2019 and her experience of the blowback that followed when Trump denied her claim.
The proceedings in the case often amounted to a more detailed explication of the consequences she’s felt, as well as an examination of the kind of comments Trump has made so often throughout his six or so decades in the public eye that they tend to get taken for granted—including his most infamous. In her closing remarks on Monday, Kaplan had invoked the Access Hollywood video, shot in 2005 and leaked in 2016, weeks before Trump’s victory in the presidential race. Recalling the laughing tone Trump was caught on tape using to describe sexual assault, Kaplan said he “grabbed [Carroll] by the pussy.” Trump declined to testify at trial but a video deposition he gave for the case provided a fresh look at his familiar demeanor; he described Kaplan in the same way he did Carroll when he denied her initial allegation, saying that the attorney was not his type.
“Carroll’s narration of her own experience after coming forward is a pretty good example of the kind of misogyny that Trumpism embraces,” my colleague Molly Jong-Fast recently wrote, “and the impact it can have on those brave enough to step up.”
Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina argued in his own closing remarks on Monday that there was in fact such a conspiracy as the one Kaplan invoked. He acknowledged that Trump’s comments in the Access Hollywood tape were “crude” and “rude” and said that he apologized for them. “He said that,” Tacopina said. “But that doesn’t make Ms. Carroll’s unbelievable story believable.”
At a campaign rally in 2016, Trump spoke about Stoynoff’s allegation of sexual assault and offered a defense he would go on to use again and again.
