Last week, in a ruling on a defamation case in New York, a federal judge made a simple statement of fact: Donald Trump sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s. Therefore, when he denied it, he was lying.

The ruling marks a victory for Carroll in a second defamation lawsuit she filed against the former president. This one concerns a set of statements he made in 2019 accusing Carroll of being a liar and a money-grubbing left-wing operative who was not his “type.” Now, instead of jurors having to determine whether Trump did what Carroll said he did, the jury must only decide how much Trump owes Carroll in damages for defaming her by calling her a liar.

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In many ways, Judge Lewis Kaplan’s decision was a no-brainer: A jury already found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a separate trial held this spring. That case concerned both the sexual assault itself and a set of statements Trump made in 2022 in which he denied assaulting Carroll. Since the first jury found Trump liable for both assaulting Carroll in the 1990s and defaming her in 2022, Kaplan had little choice but to rule that Trump’s nearly identical statements in 2019 defamed her as well. As Kaplan wrote in his ruling:

The truth or falsity of Mr. Trump’s 2019 statements … depends—like the truth or falsity of his 2022 statement—on whether Ms. Carroll lied about Mr. Trump sexually assaulting her. The jury’s finding that she did not therefore is binding in this case and precludes Mr. Trump from contesting the falsity of his 2019 statements.

Even so, it is remarkable to see the facts laid out this way in a dispassionate court ruling. No matter how intently Trump insists that he never did what Carroll said he did, the question of whether he sexually assaulted her is no longer up for debate. A jury found him liable. That verdict cannot be erased.

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Trump had tried to have this lawsuit dismissed, arguing that the first jury found only that he had sexually abusedCarroll, not rapedher, as she alleged. In New York state law, rapeinvolves the penetration of a penis into the vagina, while sexual abuse involves “any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of a person for the purpose of gratifying the sexual desire of either person.”

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But the specific quirks of the New York state penal code will not invalidate Carroll’s claim. Kaplan ruled that the first jury’s verdict can be said to find Trump liable for rape in terms of how the concept is understood by the general public.

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The ease with which Kaplan was able to move the case along drives home the significance of the jury’s verdict in May. Carroll’s allegation is no longer just an allegation—it has been validated through the (outrageously imperfect) system we have established to punish wrongdoing, mitigate harm, and separate truth from lies. The court no longer has to treat it as a story equally as plausible as Trump’s claim (which is that Carroll concocted an imaginary assault in search of a payday). A jury has already assessed their respective levels of credibility and, unsurprisingly, found Carroll to be the more trustworthy source.

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The second trial will go forward in January, but Carroll will not be forced to prove her case in the same way she did in the spring trial. The second jury will be tasked only with settling on a dollar figure that matches the damage Trump caused. But as with the $5 million the first jury awarded Carroll, the money will be a drop in the bucket for Trump—and, to a certain extent, for Carroll, as it is not the primary evidence of her victory. The bigger win is on view this week in Kaplan’s ruling: Trump’s history as a sexual abuser is no longer merely a set of allegations. As far as this court is concerned, it is a fact.

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• Donald Trump
• Jurisprudence
• Rape
• 2024 Campaign
• Trump Trials