In New York, there is a legal difference between rape and sexual abuse. It is my (admittedly limited) understanding that digital penetration counts as sexual abuse in New York.
So, according to the legal definition in NY and the idea that in the US people are innocent until proven guilty, maybe Trump can make the general claim “I’m not a rapist” without it counting as defamation. Maybe.
But in colloquial terms, we can absolutely consider this to be a lie. Donald Trump is an adjudicated rapist; a jury determined that, a minimum of one time in his life, he physically forced sexual contact on a woman who did not consent. (And based on what we know about abusers in general and this man in particular, my money is on this not being the only time in his life that he sexually assaulted someone.)
If a judge has ruled he must pay Jean E Caroll millions of dollars anytime he says he didn’t rape her, it stands to reason that “I am not a rapist” is a claim that he didn’t rape her.
In New York, there is a legal difference between rape and sexual abuse. It is my (admittedly limited) understanding that digital penetration counts as sexual abuse in New York.
So, according to the legal definition in NY and the idea that in the US people are innocent until proven guilty, maybe Trump can make the general claim “I’m not a rapist” without it counting as defamation. Maybe.
But in colloquial terms, we can absolutely consider this to be a lie. Donald Trump is an adjudicated rapist; a jury determined that, a minimum of one time in his life, he physically forced sexual contact on a woman who did not consent. (And based on what we know about abusers in general and this man in particular, my money is on this not being the only time in his life that he sexually assaulted someone.)
If a judge has ruled he must pay Jean E Caroll millions of dollars anytime he says he didn’t rape her, it stands to reason that “I am not a rapist” is a claim that he didn’t rape her.
Right, but also you can see how that might not be verbatim what the decision was. So maybe take it with a grain of salt.
It is an objective lie established as a matter of legal fact during the lawsuit. He’s a rapist no ambiguity.