Trump and Sexual Abuse
A jury found that Donald Trump sexually abused E. Jean Carroll. The judge said what that means: he raped her.
By Erik Gauger · Updated October 10, 2026
In May 2023, a federal jury in Manhattan found that Donald Trump sexually abused the writer E. Jean Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s, and defamed her when she told the story. Trump's lawyers then argued that the jury had cleared him of rape, because it did not find rape under New York's narrow legal definition. Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected that argument in writing. Carroll had proved that Trump raped her as most people understand the word, he wrote, and the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.
The verdict is final. The Supreme Court refused to hear Trump's appeal, then refused again. A second jury ordered him to pay $83.3 million for continuing to defame her.
Carroll is not the only woman who has described this. At least 28 women have publicly accused Trump of sexual misconduct, from groping and forced kissing to assault, in accounts going back to the early 1980s. Many told friends or family at the time. Trump has denied every one. On a recording made in 2005, he described doing exactly what they describe. The verdict is a finding of fact. The other accounts are allegations, and each is recorded here as one, with its source and his denial.
On standards. This is not a partisan record: the same evidentiary rules apply whatever the politics of the victim or the perpetrator. Every entry links to court records, government data, published research or established news reporting, documented actions are kept apart from alleged motives, and recorded deaths apart from estimates. How this record is kept
The count
Total Raped: 1, by jury verdict and the judge's ruling (E. Jean Carroll)
Women who have publicly accused him: at least 28. Allegations are recorded, not added to the toll.
The Carroll case
The Supreme Court refuses Trump a second time; the sexual abuse verdict is final
August 18, 2026 · Court finding
U.S. Supreme Court. On June 29, the Supreme Court declined to hear Trump's appeal of the $5 million verdict, without a single justice noting a dissent. Trump asked the Court to reconsider. On August 18 it refused again, without comment, and the judgment became final. Carroll was paid from the money Trump had posted while he appealed. His appeal of the separate $83.3 million defamation award is still pending.
Total Raped: 1 (Verdict)
Sources: NBC Palm Springs; JURIST; Boston Globe.
E. Jean Carroll receives her judgment against Trump
July 13, 2026 · Court finding
New York, New York. E. Jean Carroll received more than $5.6 million from Trump, the original $5 million judgment plus accrued interest, after the Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal. In 2023 a federal jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s, forcibly penetrating her with his fingers, and for defaming her. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan later wrote that the verdict implicitly determined Trump had digitally raped Carroll.
Total Raped: 1
Sources: The Washington Post, “Judge clarifies: Yes, Trump was found to have raped E. Jean Carroll”; The Washington Post, “E. Jean Carroll gets $5.6 million from Trump verdict, court records show”.
Appeals court upholds the $83.3 million defamation award
September 8, 2025 · Court finding
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. A federal appeals court upheld the second jury's award in full, rejecting Trump's claim that presidential immunity protected what he said about Carroll. Trump has asked the Supreme Court to take the case.
Sources: JURIST; Spokesman-Review; NBC Palm Springs.
Appeals court upholds the sexual abuse verdict
December 30, 2024 · Court finding
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. A three-judge panel rejected Trump's arguments that the trial judge had wrongly allowed the testimony of two other women he had assaulted and the Access Hollywood recording, and left the $5 million verdict standing.
Total Raped: 1 (Verdict)
Sources: AP via WPTV.
A second jury orders Trump to pay $83.3 million
January 26, 2024 · Court finding
Federal court, Manhattan. Trump kept calling Carroll a liar after the first verdict, including from the campaign trail. A second jury, asked only how much he owed for the attacks he made as president in 2019, awarded her $83.3 million, including $65 million in punitive damages.
The judge rules that Trump raped Carroll “as many people commonly understand the word”
July 19, 2023 · Court finding
Federal court, Manhattan. Trump asked for a new trial, claiming the jury had found he did not rape Carroll. Judge Lewis Kaplan denied the motion. New York's legal definition of rape at the time was narrow, he explained, and the jury's finding under that definition did not mean Carroll failed to prove rape as the word is commonly understood. The evidence showed, he wrote, that the jury found Trump had done exactly that.
Total Raped: 1 (Court ruling)
Sources: Salon; Boston Globe; The New Republic.
A jury finds Trump liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll
May 9, 2023 · Court finding
Federal court, Manhattan. After less than three hours of deliberation, a jury of six men and three women found that Trump sexually abused Carroll and defamed her when he called her story a hoax, and awarded her $5 million. Trump did not testify or attend the trial. The jury heard from two other women, Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, who described being assaulted by him, and watched the Access Hollywood recording.
Total Raped: 1 (Jury verdict)
Sources: AP via WABE; AP via Brooklyn Eagle.
The assault on E. Jean Carroll
1995 or 1996 · Court finding
Bergdorf Goodman, Manhattan. Carroll, a longtime advice columnist, ran into Trump at the department store, and he asked her to help him pick out a gift. In a dressing room in the lingerie department, she said, he pushed her against the wall and assaulted her. She told two friends soon afterward; both testified at trial. She went public in June 2019, in New York magazine. Trump said he had never met her, that she was “not my type,” and that the story was a hoax. A photograph of the two of them together from 1987 was shown at trial; in his deposition, Trump mistook Carroll in it for his former wife Marla Maples.
Total Raped: 1 (Found by the jury in 2023)
Sources: AP via WABE (the trial).
In his own words
The Access Hollywood tape: “they let you do it”
September 2005 (released October 7, 2016) · His own words
Washington, DC. The world heard Donald Trump in his own words. In the 2005 recording, captured while he spoke with TV host Billy Bush on the set of Access Hollywood, Trump bragged openly about committing sexual assault: "I'm automatically attracted to beautiful [women]...I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait." Then, laughing, he added the line that would come to define the scandal: "When you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything."
The remarks were a confession, delivered casually, as though assault were simply a perk of fame. When the tape became public, Trump dismissed the comments as "locker-room talk", refusing to apologize for the underlying behavior. The language itself was a performance of entitlement...the voice of a man so insulated by power that he could describe sexual violence as charm.
The tape normalized aggression and degradation as political theater. Millions of his supporters brushed off the words, framing them as humor or bravado, and in doing so helped move the boundaries of public decency. The episode reinforced what dozens of women had already alleged...that Trump's abuse was not hypothetical.
At least two women, including People magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff and reality contestant Summer Zervos, later described assaults that mirrored his boast: sudden, unwanted kissing and groping without consent. Others, from models to employees, told similar stories spanning decades. Rather than express remorse, Trump threatened his accusers, mocked them onstage, and vowed to sue. The "Access Hollywood" tape thus became a window into a broader pattern...a man who viewed women as objects of conquest, and a political movement willing to excuse it.
Sources: Washington Post via Boston Globe.
Trump boasts of walking in on pageant contestants undressed
2005 · His own words
The Howard Stern Show. Talking about the Miss Universe pageant he owned, Trump told Howard Stern that he went backstage before shows while contestants were getting dressed, that they were standing there with no clothes, and that he could get away with things like that because he was the owner. Several contestants later described exactly that.
Sources: BuzzFeed News; IBTimes UK.
The women who accused him
Each account below is an allegation. Trump has denied all of them.
Alva Johnson says Trump forcibly kissed her
August 2016 · Allegation
Campaign rally, Tampa, Florida. Johnson, who worked on his campaign, said Trump grabbed her hand and kissed her on the mouth outside an RV before a rally. She sued in 2019 and later dropped the case. Two people she named as witnesses denied seeing it. The White House called the claim absurd.
Total Injured: 1 (Allegation)
Cassandra Searles, Miss Washington, says Trump repeatedly groped her
2013 · Allegation
Miss USA pageant, Las Vegas. Searles said Trump repeatedly grabbed her buttocks and invited her to his hotel room, and that he treated contestants like cattle. She posted her account in 2016. Trump did not respond to it specifically.
Total Injured: 1 (Allegation)
Summer Zervos describes an assault at a job meeting
December 2007 · Allegation
Beverly Hills Hotel. Zervos said that when she met Trump to discuss a job, he kissed her open-mouthed, grabbed her breast and pressed himself against her. When Trump called her a liar, she sued him for defamation in 2017. The case reached New York's highest court before she withdrew it in 2021.
Total Injured: 1 (Allegation)
Sources: AP via News4JAX.
Ninni Laaksonen, Miss Finland, says Trump grabbed her
July 2006 · Allegation
New York. Laaksonen told the Finnish newspaper Ilta-Sanomat that Trump grabbed her buttocks before they appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman.
Total Injured: 1 (Allegation)
Sources: Associated Press via Anchorage Daily News; Fortune.
Jessica Drake says Trump kissed her and two friends without permission
2006 · Allegation
Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Drake said that at a celebrity golf tournament, Trump hugged and kissed her and two friends in his hotel suite without asking, then offered her $10,000 to come back to his room. The campaign called it false and ridiculous.
Total Injured: 1 (Allegation)
Sources: Mediaite; CNN via WTVR.
Natasha Stoynoff says Trump pinned her to a wall
December 2005 · Allegation
Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach. Stoynoff was at Mar-a-Lago to write about Trump's first wedding anniversary with Melania. She said he led her into an empty room, pushed her against a wall and forced his tongue into her mouth. Six people confirmed that she told them about it at the time. Trump said it never happened.
Total Injured: 1 (Allegation; she testified at the Carroll trial)
Sources: CNN; AP: witnesses back her account.
Rachel Crooks says Trump kissed her on the mouth
2005 · Allegation
Trump Tower, New York. Crooks, then 22 and working for a company in Trump Tower, said Trump kissed her directly on the mouth outside an elevator after she introduced herself. Trump asked who would do such a thing in a public space with security cameras. Crooks later ran for the Ohio legislature.
Total Injured: 1 (Allegation)
Sources: PBS NewsHour on the New York Times report.
Juliet Huddy says Trump kissed her in an elevator
2005 or 2006 · Allegation
Trump Tower, New York. Huddy said that after a lunch, Trump kissed her on the lips in an elevator while a security guard stood by. She described it in 2017.
Total Injured: 1 (Allegation)
Sources: BuzzFeed News; Vice News.
Mindy McGillivray says Trump grabbed her
January 2003 · Allegation
Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach. McGillivray, then 23 and assisting a photographer at a Ray Charles concert, said Trump grabbed her buttocks. The photographer said she told him right away. Trump's spokeswoman called the claim untruthful.
Total Injured: 1 (Allegation)
Sources: Boston Globe; WPTV on the Palm Beach Post interview.
Contestants say Trump walked into their dressing rooms
1997–2001 · Allegation
Miss Teen USA and Miss USA pageants. Several contestants said Trump walked into dressing rooms while women and girls were changing. Mariah Billado, Miss Vermont Teen USA in 1997, recalled him saying he had seen it all before. Victoria Hughes, Miss New Mexico Teen USA, said the youngest girl in the room was 15. Bridget Sullivan, Miss New Hampshire USA in 2000, and Tasha Dixon, Miss Arizona USA in 2001, described the same thing at the adult pageant. Some other contestants said they did not see him. The campaign said the accounts had no merit. On the Howard Stern Show, Trump had boasted of walking in on contestants at the adult Miss Universe pageant; there is no recording of him saying it about the teen pageant.
Sources: BuzzFeed News; PolitiFact.
Karena Virginia says Trump grabbed her
1998 · Allegation
U.S. Open, Queens, New York. Virginia said that while she waited for a car outside the tennis tournament, Trump made comments about her legs, then grabbed her arm and touched her breast. The campaign dismissed her lawyer, Gloria Allred, as a political operative.
Total Injured: 1 (Allegation)
Sources: Associated Press via Anchorage Daily News; DNAinfo.
Amy Dorris says Trump forcibly kissed and groped her
September 1997 · Allegation
U.S. Open, Queens, New York. Dorris said Trump groped her and forcibly kissed her outside a bathroom at his box at the tennis tournament. She told her mother and a friend immediately. She went public in September 2020. Trump denied it through his lawyers.
Total Injured: 1 (Allegation)
Sources: Bloomberg on the Guardian report; Times of Israel.
Cathy Heller says Trump grabbed and kissed her
1997 · Allegation
Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach. Heller said that when Trump came to greet her family, he grabbed her and went for her lips as she turned away. Her husband and children confirmed her account. The campaign called it false and politically motivated.
Total Injured: 1 (Allegation)
Temple Taggart McDowell, Miss Utah USA, says Trump kissed her
1997 · Allegation
Trump Tower, New York. Taggart McDowell, then 21, said Trump kissed her on the lips when they were introduced, and again later in his office, with a chaperone present. Trump said he did not know her.
Total Injured: 1 (Allegation)
Sources: NBC News.
Groping and forced kissing: the pattern, 1992–1997
1992–1997 · Allegation
New York and Palm Beach. Jill Harth, Cathy Heller, Temple Taggart McDowell, Amy Dorris, and others accused Trump of groping or forcibly kissing them without consent. Trump denied all allegations. These incidents illustrated a pattern of personal violence toward women that paralleled the coercive tone of his political persona decades later.
Sources: ABC News, list of accusers; BuzzFeed News.
Stacey Williams says Trump groped her while Epstein watched
1993 · Allegation
Trump Tower, New York. Williams, a former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model who was dating Epstein at the time, said Epstein brought her to Trump's office, where Trump groped her as Epstein looked on. She went public in October 2024. Trump's spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, called the account unequivocally false and politically motivated.
Total Injured: 1 (Allegation)
Sources: AP via FOX 6; AP via 6abc.
Beatrice Keul says Trump groped her
1993 · Allegation
The Plaza Hotel, New York. Keul said Trump groped her in his suite at the Plaza Hotel, which he then owned. She went public in October 2024.
Total Injured: 1 (Allegation)
Sources: Swissinfo; The Daily Beast.
Jill Harth says Trump groped and assaulted her
December 1992 – January 1993 · Allegation
New York and Mar-a-Lago. Harth said Trump groped her under the table at a business dinner, with her boyfriend sitting there, and weeks later pushed her against a wall in Ivanka's bedroom at Mar-a-Lago and assaulted her. She sued in 1997, then withdrew the case. Trump called her account false, malicious and libelous.
Total Injured: 1 (Allegation)
Sources: Fortune; Slate on the 1997 lawsuit.
Kristin Anderson says Trump reached under her skirt
Early 1990s · Allegation
Nightclub, Manhattan. Anderson, then a young model, said Trump, sitting beside her on a couch, reached under her skirt and touched her through her underwear. She told friends at the time.
Total Injured: 1 (Allegation)
Sources: CNN on the Washington Post report; Daily Beast.
Ivana Trump's divorce deposition, and what she said later
1989 · Allegation
Trump Tower, New York. In a 1990 deposition during their divorce, Ivana Trump described an attack in which, after a painful scalp surgery, Trump pulled out handfuls of her hair and forced himself on her. A 1993 book reported that she told friends he raped her. Before the book was published, she issued a statement that she had felt violated but did not mean the word “rape” in a literal or criminal sense; in 2015 she called the story without merit. Trump called it false. This entry records both.
Total Injured: 1 (Allegation, later qualified)
Sources: NBC News; The Daily Beast.
Jessica Leeds says Trump groped her on a plane
Early 1980s · Allegation
First-class cabin, flight to New York. Leeds, a businesswoman, said that after she was moved to first class, the man in the next seat, Trump, lifted the armrest and began grabbing her breasts and reaching up her skirt, until she fled to the back of the plane. She described it publicly in 2016 and testified at the Carroll trial in 2023. Trump's campaign called it fiction, and Trump threatened to sue but never did.
Total Injured: 1 (Allegation; she testified at the Carroll trial)
Sources: PBS NewsHour on the New York Times report; AP via MPR.
← The full record: every incident, by date · How this record is kept
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