Has Donald Trump been convicted of sexual assault in any United States court, excluding civil liability?

1. Civil liability that courts have sustained — what the record shows

A federal jury in Manhattan found Trump liable in a civil case brought by columnist E. Jean Carroll for sexual abuse and defamation and awarded $5 million in damages, a judgment that was later upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Appeals courts and subsequent reporting have described these rulings as civil findings of liability — not criminal convictions — and later rulings and damages calculations have compounded the monetary awards connected to those findings ^{[2] [5]}.

2. Criminal conviction? The reporting and fact checks say no

Multiple fact-checks and legal commentators make the core point bluntly: the Carroll verdict is civil, not criminal, and therefore does not equal a criminal conviction for sexual assault in any U.S. court ^[4]. Newsweek and other legal observers underscore that the standard of proof in civil trials (“preponderance of the evidence”) differs materially from the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard required to convict in criminal court, meaning civil liability cannot be equated with criminal guilt as a legal matter ^[4].

3. Other allegations, admissions and evidentiary threads that complicate public perception

Reporting catalogs numerous allegations and episodes that have shaped public discourse — from the Access Hollywood tape to multiple women’s accusations and other civil claims — and courts in the Carroll litigation admitted some of that evidence under rules allowing other sexual-assault evidence in civil trials, all of which helped the jury find liability ^{[6] [3]}. That body of evidence is often cited by journalists and advocates as politically and morally significant, but it remains legally distinct from criminal adjudication ^{[3] [4]}.

4. A contested claim in filings about a 1997 conviction — noted but not corroborated here

A Supreme Court filing cited in the available docket material references an earlier “1997 conviction for Abusive Sexual Contact with a Minor” in some evidentiary context ^[7]. The sources provided do not include independent reporting that confirms or explains the provenance or finality of that referenced 1997 matter; therefore, while the filing itself mentions it, the public reporting set given here does not establish a confirmed, separate, criminal conviction record for Trump on that ground beyond what the filing asserts ^[7].

5. How conflation happens and why it matters

Observers and fact-checkers warn that media shorthand and political rhetoric sometimes blur civil findings and criminal convictions, which can mislead readers about legal consequences; Newsweek explicitly warns that conflating a civil liability verdict with a criminal rape conviction would be “legally wrong and dangerous” ^[4]. Courts, journalists and advocates operate with different incentives—courts on legal standards, media and partisans on narrative and political stakes—which helps explain why public discussion often overstresses the symbolic weight of civil judgments even while legally distinct from criminal convictions ^{[4] [8]}.

6. Bottom line drawn from the provided reporting

Based solely on the documents and reporting supplied, there is no record in these sources of a United States criminal-court conviction of Donald Trump for sexual assault; the clearest, repeatedly litigated and upheld legal finding in the record provided is a civil liability judgment in favor of E. Jean Carroll for sexual abuse and related defamation ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}. Any claim that Trump has been “convicted” of sexual assault in a criminal court would contradict the fact-based summaries and fact-checks cited above ^[4].