What where the names of the women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct and were there any trials and clear cases of it
Executive summary
A substantial roster of women—commonly counted in the mid‑20s—have publicly accused Donald Trump of misconduct ranging from groping to rape, and several pursued civil claims; the most legally consequential outcome to date is a civil finding that Trump was liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll and for defaming her, while he has not been criminally convicted for sexual misconduct [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. The roster: who has come forward and how many
Reports and compilations by mainstream outlets and researchers list roughly two dozen to nearly three dozen women who have accused Trump of sexual harassment, groping, assault or rape dating from the 1970s through the 2010s, with names frequently cited in coverage including E. Jean Carroll, Summer Zervos, Jill Harth, Jessica Drake, Jessica Leeds, Rachel Crooks, Natasha Stoynoff, Karen Johnson and Stacey Williams among others [1] [5] [6] [2]; different outlets count between 26 and 27 accusers depending on how incidents are aggregated [1] [2].
2. Civil suits, defamation counters and settlements — the legal landscape
Only a small subset of accusers pursued formal legal actions against Trump; Summer Zervos filed a defamation suit after Trump publicly called her story a hoax and later withdrew that particular defamation case in 2021, Jill Harth brought litigation in the late 1990s that was partly settled, and E. Jean Carroll brought civil suits that resulted in jury findings against Trump for both sexual abuse and defamation with substantial damages awarded [7] [8] [4] [9].
3. The E. Jean Carroll verdict and what it established
Carroll sued for defamation and under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, and a New York jury in 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the mid‑1990s and for defaming her, awarding damages; subsequent related proceedings and a 2024 trial expanded damages with judges noting that a prior finding supported Carroll’s claim and that the jury did not find rape under New York’s narrow statutory definition but did find sexual abuse by a preponderance of the evidence [3] [4] [9]. Coverage and court documents show the trial used corroborating testimony, the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape as context, and other accusers’ statements as evidence of pattern, even as Trump has denied the allegations and appealed the rulings [4] [9].
4. Criminal charges and “clear” convictions — what did and didn’t happen
As of the cited reporting, Trump has not been criminally charged or convicted for sexual assault; outlets explicitly note that the Carroll matters were civil verdicts rather than criminal convictions and that no criminal trials have produced a conviction of Trump for sexual misconduct [2] [3]. The difference between civil liability (preponderance of evidence) and criminal conviction (beyond a reasonable doubt) is consequential here: the Carroll verdict is legally definitive in the civil context but does not equate to a criminal guilty verdict [4] [3].
5. Competing narratives, denials and the politics of reporting
Trump and his defenders have consistently denied all accusations and characterized many claims as politically motivated or false, while accusers and their advocates argue the consistency of multiple accounts establishes pattern and credibility; media projects and books that catalog the allegations sometimes differ in counting incidents and in sourcing, and some earlier claims (for example, Ivana Trump’s remark in a 1990 divorce that was later recanted) complicate the public record, underscoring both evidentiary limits and the political stakes reported across outlets [7] [5] [9]. Reporting outlets and court rulings present alternative perspectives and legal caveats—civil verdicts, appeals, and denials—so assessments of “clear cases” depend on whether one means civil liability, criminal conviction, or public credibility as judged in the press and courts [4] [3].