Trump doubled down on his insulting, often misogynistic rhetoric about women in a CNN Republican town hall Wednesday evening, mockingly calling Carroll a “wack job” in a comment that drew glee from the New Hampshire audience. Trump, in hours of deposition questioning, denied he knew Carroll despite photographic evidence, and he denigrated her as “not my type.” He also mused that celebrities had gotten away with sexually abusing women for centuries, “unfortunately, or fortunately.” She said she only hoped to clear her name, one the jury - in awarding nearly $3 million for defamation - agreed Trump had sullied. Trump dismissed the accusation as a way to boost sales of Carroll’s 2019 book, “What Do We Need Men For?”īut Carroll, in the wake of the verdict, said the case was never about money. But it’s often too late, as it was for her, to pursue criminal charges. Advocates say it can take years for victims like the 79-year-old advice columnist to move past their sense of shame and go public. “What might certainly derail other candidates or elected officials meets an eye roll among many Trump detractors - and only further mobilizes Trump supporters around the idea that this is a ‘witch hunt’ against him.”Ĭarroll this week savored the outcome of the lawsuit she filed the day New York, like some other states, opened a one-year window for adults to file suit over old sexual assault claims. “Trump’s long list of scandals makes any single moment seem less surprising,” said Kelly Dittmar, a scholar with the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. For others, the news barely hit their radar, if they were aware of the decision at all, even as Trump campaigns for the presidency again. Nuñez followed the trial and discussed it with a few colleagues at her public relations job.

With a string of investigations swirling around Trump, the sex-abuse case - a civil verdict, with no criminal prosecution possible - hit only so hard across a news-weary America.

A vindication of the rights woman