Which criminal charges related to sexual assault has Donald Trump faced and what were the outcomes?
Executive summary
Donald Trump has been the subject of numerous public accusations of rape, sexual assault and harassment from multiple women, but the reporting provided shows no criminal prosecution or conviction for sexual assault; the most concrete legal outcome is a series of civil rulings, most notably a jury finding him liable to E. Jean Carroll and awarding damages that have been upheld on appeal [1] [2] [3] [4]. The charges that produced legal penalties were civil—battery and defamation claims revived under New York’s Adult Survivors Act—rather than criminal indictments [5] [6].
1. The landscape: dozens of accusations but no criminal sex‑assault convictions
Reporting assembled by multiple outlets documents that at least dozens of women have accused Trump over decades of non‑consensual kissing, groping or worse, and the public record is replete with those allegations and the infamous 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump brags about grabbing women [1] [7] [8]. However, the sources provided do not identify any instance in which Trump was criminally charged, tried, or convicted for sexual assault; the prominent court outcomes cited are civil judgments, not criminal sentences [1] [2].
2. The E. Jean Carroll civil verdict: liability for sexual abuse and defamation
E. Jean Carroll sued Trump in two related civil actions; a 2023 federal jury found him liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the mid‑1990s and for later defaming her, awarding roughly $5 million in the trial judgment for those claims [2] [9]. The claim for sexual battery in Carroll’s second suit was made possible by New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which temporarily revived certain stale claims so survivors could pursue civil relief [5] [6].
3. Appeals and enforcement: judgments upheld and appeals ongoing
Federal appeals courts have affirmed key rulings in the Carroll litigation: a Second Circuit panel upheld the $5 million award and rejected Trump’s challenges to the admission of evidence, including testimony from other accusers and the Access Hollywood tape [3] [4]. Trump’s legal team has appealed and argued trial errors; Trump has also publicly denied the allegations and characterized verdicts as politically motivated, which the record shows has led to post‑verdict appeals rather than criminal prosecutions [10] [4].
4. What the civil findings mean — and their limits compared with criminal law
Civil liability establishes that a jury found, by the civil standard, that Trump committed sexual abuse and defamed Carroll; the awards include compensatory and punitive amounts and separate sums tied to reputational harms [4]. Those findings are distinct from criminal guilt: civil trials apply lower burdens of proof than criminal trials, and civil judgments do not carry imprisonment; the Carroll sexual‑assault claim could not have proceeded earlier without the Adult Survivors Act because applicable criminal or civil statutes of limitation had long expired [2] [5].
5. Broader context, competing narratives and limits of the record
Media timelines and compilations catalog many accusers and episodes that, collectively, shaped public understanding of Trump’s conduct, and advocacy groups and legal commentators have used the Carroll verdict to argue courts can and will hold powerful people civilly accountable for sexual misconduct [7] [11]. At the same time, Trump and his defenders insist the claims are false or politically driven; his legal strategy has focused on appeals and challenging evidentiary rulings rather than criminal defenses because the record shows civil suits have been the forum for these claims [10] [4]. The sources provided do not document any criminal sexual‑assault charge filed against Trump, and thus this analysis cannot assert the existence of criminal prosecutions beyond the civil judgments cited [1] [2].