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This week, a jury in a civil trial in New York found Donald Trump guilty of sexually abusing and defaming writer E Jean Carroll. It ordered that the former US president should pay a total of $5 million in damages to the woman – the bulk of the money in compensation for calling her a liar.

The assault took place in the 1990s in the changing room of a department store. The jury found that he did not rape Carroll who bravely withstood three days’ of cross examination in the Manhattan courtroom.

After the verdict, his lawyer said he will be appealing the decision, while Trump who did not attend the court, responded during an interview on CNN on Wednesday by calling Carroll, among other things, a “wack job” and repeated his claim that the case was politically motivated.

Reporter Molly Crane-Newman was in court for the entire trial – and she explains why it took nearly 30 years for Carroll to get justice, how the jury responded to the evidence put before them, including that infamous “grab ‘em by the pussy” 2005 tape. And what happens next. Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey.

Bernice Harrison

Bernice Harrison

Bernice Harrison is an Irish Times journalist and cohost of In the News podcast