Wednesday thread: A jury finds Trump guilty of sexual assault

Seven years later, the Access Hollywood tape bites Donald Trump. Is it all finally catching up with him?

In a great victory for E. Jean Carroll and women everywhere—including the many women who’ve said they were sexually assaulted by Donald Trump—a federal jury in a civil trial in New York found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation. Carroll filed a sexual battery case against Trump under a new law allowing civil charges for cases past the statute of limitations, in addition to filing a defamation suit.

In just three hours, the jury decided there wasn’t enough evidence to prove rape (though that actually wasn’t what Carroll sued for; it was part of her testimony in the trial), but plenty of evidence to show sexual abuse. A lot of people are confused by this, but it comes down to evidence of penetration by his penis vs. his hand, and, well, the jury definitely saw a preponderance of evidence for the latter. And nonetheless, it was a massive loss for Trump. And the jury surprised everyone with compensatory and punitive damages well above what observers expected: $5 million.

Trump thought he’d completely buried the infamous Access Hollywood tape from 2016. But it came back to haunt him as it was entered as evidence and as a jury saw that Trump did exactly what he said on the tape to E. Jean Carroll and two other women who testified: he grabbed them by their genitalia.

The GOP seems to be in turmoil. Some GOP leaders had already begun trashing the trial and the verdict, while others said Trump would be a disaster in 2024.

What does it all mean moving forward?