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What did E. Jean Carroll allege about Donald Trump and what years did her accusations reference?
Executive summary
E. Jean Carroll publicly accused Donald J. Trump in June 2019 of sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid‑1990s — most accounts reference late 1995 or 1996 — and later sued him for defamation after he denied the allegation; a jury in 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing her and awarded $5 million, and separate proceedings produced an $83.3 million defamation award in 2024 [1] [2] [3]. Reporting and court opinions frame the alleged incident as occurring in the mid‑1990s (variously cited as 1995, 1996, or “mid‑1990s”) and make clear the legal disputes that followed her 2019 public allegation [1] [4] [2].
1. What Carroll said and where she first went public
Carroll wrote a June 2019 New York magazine piece in which she said Donald Trump assaulted her in a department‑store dressing room; that article named the location (Bergdorf Goodman) and said the encounter happened roughly 23 years earlier, prompting the widely circulated dating to the mid‑1990s that Carroll and many outlets repeat [1] [5]. Subsequent reporting and court filings reiterate that she accused Trump of sexual assault in a Manhattan department store dressing room and that she publicly raised the allegation in 2019, after which Trump denied it and made statements that led Carroll to sue for defamation [6] [7].
2. The timeline Carroll and courts have used: “mid‑1990s,” 1995 and 1996
Multiple legal documents and news reports anchor the alleged incident to the mid‑1990s; some sources specify “late 1995 or early 1996,” others reference 1996 more directly. The Wikipedia summary and several judicial filings indicate late 1995 or early 1996 as Carroll’s dating [1], while the AP and other outlets report the jury’s finding as tied to 1996 [2]. Court opinions and appellate summaries also describe the event as occurring in 1996 or the mid‑1990s [4] [2].
3. What juries and courts have actually decided
A federal jury in May 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll (a form of civil liability distinct from a criminal conviction) and awarded $5 million; jurors concluded the conduct amounted to sexual abuse but did not find her claim of rape proved beyond what the civil jury required [2]. Separately, another jury returned a much larger $83.3 million defamation award arising from his public statements denying and criticizing Carroll’s allegation; appellate courts have since reviewed and in some instances upheld those awards [6] [3].
4. How Trump responded and how that shaped subsequent litigation
Trump repeatedly denied the allegation, at times calling Carroll a liar and saying she was “not my type,” statements that formed the basis of Carroll’s defamation suits [6]. Trump’s lawyers have appealed the civil rulings and sought review by higher courts, including a 2025 petition to the U.S. Supreme Court challenging a $5 million verdict and contesting evidentiary rulings at trial — framing Carroll’s claims as “facially implausible” and politically motivated [8] [9] [3].
5. Evidence and contested issues highlighted in reporting
News coverage and court filings emphasize there were no eyewitnesses, no contemporaneous police report, and no video of the alleged incident — facts Trump’s attorneys cite in arguing Carroll delayed reporting for decades [6] [10]. Carroll and her lawyers presented testimony and documentary evidence in court, and judges allowed some propensity and corroborating evidence (including testimony from other women and the “Access Hollywood” tape) that Trump later challenged as improper; appellate courts have addressed those evidentiary disputes when affirming verdicts [4] [7] [3].
6. Competing narratives and the limits of public reporting
There are two competing narratives in the record: Carroll’s account of an assault in the mid‑1990s and Trump’s denials and assertions that the allegation was fabricated for political or financial reasons [6] [3]. Available sources do not mention any definitive forensic or contemporaneous law‑enforcement documentation confirming the event itself; instead, the factual record in the civil cases consists of witness testimony, contemporaneous emails or recollections, and other evidence admitted at trial [6] [4]. Courts have rendered civil findings based on that record, but those are not criminal convictions [2].
7. Why the dates matter in reporting and law
Dating the alleged assault to the mid‑1990s mattered legally because New York’s Adult Survivors Act allowed older civil claims to be brought; it also shaped public debate over timing and credibility when Carroll first went public in 2019 [1] [11]. Different outlets and filings choose slightly different year labels (1995, 1996, “mid‑1990s”), but the consensus across reporting and court materials places the alleged incident in that mid‑1990s window [1] [2] [4].
If you want, I can extract exact quoted language from Carroll’s 2019 article and from key court orders or compile a side‑by‑side timeline of filings and verdicts showing when each award and appeal occurred (using the sources above).