Donald Trump found guilty of sexually abusing E Jean Carroll

Former US president Donald Trump appears in court at the Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on April 4, 2023. - Former US president Donald Trump arrived for a historic court appearance in New York on Tuesday, facing criminal charges that threaten to upend the 2024 White House race. (Photo by Steven HIRSCH / POOL / AFP) (Photo by STEVEN HIRSCH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Donald Trump sexually abused writer E Jean Carroll in the 1990s and then defamed her by branding her a liar, a United States jury has ruled.

The verdict was read out in a Manhattan federal court on Tuesday afternoon, just hours after jurors began deliberating following a seven-day trial.

Carroll had accused the former president, who is seeking re-election in 2024, of sexually assaulting her in a New York City department store in the mid-1990s. She also alleged that Trump defamed her by dismissing her story – told in a 2019 memoir – as a “con job”.

The nine-member jury awarded about $5m in compensatory and punitive damages.