<!-- wp:html --><p>Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty</p>
<p>What really was on trial in the E. Jean Carroll case was our attitudes towards sexual assault.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/jury-says-donald-trump-didnt-rape-e-jean-carroll-but-liable-for-battery?ref=home?ref=home">Manhattan jury took only three hours</a> to find <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-blows-final-deadline-to-testify-at-e-jean-carroll-trial">former President Donald Trump</a> liable for the sexual abuse of the writer <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-start-of-the-e-jean-carroll-rape-trial-wasnt-a-good-look-for-trump">E. Jean Carroll</a> that occurred almost 30 years ago, but the defense Trump mounted dated back far longer.</p>
<p>Trump’s defense team chose to present no evidence in the case, but relied entirely on a cross-examination of Carroll that was a showcase of sexual assault victim tropes. Trump attorney <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-lawyer-joe-tacopinas-terrible-cross-examination-in-e-jean-carroll-trial-gets-even-worse">Joe Tacopina</a> applied long-discredited assumptions about how sexual assault victims must behave if they are to be believed.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-failed-rape-defense-was-straight-out-of-the-17th-century">Read more at The Daily Beast.</a></p><!-- /wp:html -->
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty
What really was on trial in the E. Jean Carroll case was our attitudes towards sexual assault.
Trump’s defense team chose to present no evidence in the case, but relied entirely on a cross-examination of Carroll that was a showcase of sexual assault victim tropes. Trump attorney Joe Tacopina applied long-discredited assumptions about how sexual assault victims must behave if they are to be believed.
