E Jean Carroll v Donald Trump: how the civil court case unfolded

The ex-president has been found liable for sexual abuse and defamation. What will the verdict mean for his political career?

• This article is extracted from our First Edition newsletter. Sign up here

When E Jean Carroll, a magazine writer, came forward to describe how she was sexually assaulted by Donald Trump in a Manhattan department store in 1996, Trump called her claim a complete con job" and accused her of making it up to sell books. But on Tuesday, a New York jury - in a civil, rather than criminal, case - disagreed. They found that he was liable for sexual abuse and defamation - and ordered him to pay her $5m (4m) in damages.

The jury did not find that Trump had raped Carroll, as she alleged. But it said he was shown by a preponderance of the evidence to have sexually abused her, and then told a malicious falsehood about her that did serious damage to her reputation. After years of credible allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump, Tuesday's verdict is the first time that a court has said that such a claim has been proven to be true.