Jury finds Trump liable in civil sex abuse case, George Santos faces charges: 5 Things podcast

On today’s episode of the 5 Things podcast: Jury finds Trump liable in civil sex abuse case

A federal jury has found former President Donald Trump liable in the civil sex abuse case of E. Jean Carroll. Plus, prosecutors file charges against Rep. George Santos, USA TODAY White House Correspondent Joey Garrison looks at what’s next after President Joe Biden and congressional leaders failed to strike a deal over the debt ceiling, Tucker Carlson has a new home for his show, and there are new recommendations for when women should be screened for breast cancer.

Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here

Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I’m Taylor Wilson, and this is 5 Things you need to know Wednesday, the 10th of May 2023. Today, a jury finds former President Donald Trump liable in the civil sex abuse case of E. Jean Carroll. Plus, charges have been filed against Congressman George Santos, and Tucker Carlson announces a new home.

♦

A federal jury found former President Donald Trump liable in a civil case for sexual abuse of writer E. Jean Carroll in 1996, and the defamation of her in recent years. I spoke with USA TODAY National Political Correspondent David Jackson in the wake of the verdict. David, welcome back to 5 Things.

David Jackson:

Hey, thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So we have a verdict in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump. What did the jury decide here?

David Jackson:

Basically, now it didn’t convict him because this wasn’t a criminal trial, it was a civil trial. So what they did was they found him liable for sexual abuse that injured E. Jean Carroll during an incident back in 1996. One thing to note is that the jury was also asked whether they thought Trump raped E. Jean Carroll, but they said no. They went with the sexual abuse allegation instead.

Story continues

Taylor Wilson:

And did they go on further on what the distinction between those two things is?

David Jackson:

In the jury, the formal jury charge, they did, but that hasn’t been publicized yet, but it’s a very legalistic definitions as to what constitutes rape and what constitutes sexual abuse. As for why they went that direction, I don’t think anyone really knows because we don’t even know what the jurors’ names are, much less interviewed them about what their decision making process.

Taylor Wilson:

David, were you surprised by the speed of the verdict?

David Jackson:

Very much so, yes. It took less than three hours. And in these civil cases, what happens is that jurors are asked as a questionnaire. Do you think that he raped E. Jean Carroll? Do you think he sexually abused E. Jean Carroll? And within those questions, if you agree that he did, how much in damages should he pay Ms. Carroll? So then there were basically four different categories of various allegations. So it was a fairly long questionnaire, so I was a little bit surprised that it took them only three hours to come to a verdict, especially what looks like a compromised verdict because as I say, they didn’t find Trump liable for rape, they went for basically a lesser charge.

Taylor Wilson:

And do we expect Trump’s lawyers to appeal here?

David Jackson:

Oh, yes. Yes, Trump has already gone on with Fox Internet and his lawyers made clear that they will appeal the verdict, and part of the reason is they feel like it’s a contradictory verdict that they found Trump innocent, if you will, of rape, but convicted him of sexual abuse and they’re not sure they see the difference. So that’s one of the issues that they’ll be bringing up on appeal.

Taylor Wilson:

And this is just the latest legal problem for the former President, as you’ve outlined many times here on the show for us, David. How much time needs to pass before we can have a reasonable understanding of how this case impacts Trump’s 2024 political aspirations?

David Jackson:

It’ll be an unknown topic until people actually start to vote, which will probably happen in January or February of next year. Right up until the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, we’ll be really wondering whether or not this will affect Trump because on the polls as we have them now, he’s actually benefiting. More Republican primary voters are coming his way because they feel like he’s getting messed over and that it’s a plot to try to hurt his reputation. But many pollsters that I deal with suspect that there are a lot of Republicans who, yeah, they say they’ll vote for Trump, but when it comes right down to it, they’re tired of the drama and they’ll go with someone else. So we won’t know how many of those people might be in that category until there’s actually a balloting.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, David Jackson, I’m sure we’ll have you back soon. Thanks so much.

David Jackson:

Thank you, sir. Bye.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

Federal prosecutors have filed charges against Congressman George Santos. The Republican lawmaker’s fabrications about his personal and professional life have raised his national profile and attracted legal scrutiny. It’s still not clear exactly what charges the freshman lawmaker faces, but FBI and Justice Department prosecutors have been investigating allegedly false claims in his campaign finance filings, among other things. Santos could appear in federal court as soon as today, according to CNN and NBC. The House Ethics Committee previously voted to establish a subcommittee to look into whether Santos engaged in unlawful activity during his 2022 campaign, and to investigate a sexual misconduct allegation involving a staffer. Santos has admitted to lying about having Jewish ancestry, a Wall Street background, college degrees, and history as a star volleyball player.

♦

President Joe Biden met with top congressional leaders yesterday, but they failed to reach a deal on an increasingly stubborn standoff over the debt ceiling. USA TODAY White House Correspondent Joey Garrison has the latest. Welcome back to the show, Joey.

Joey Garrison:

Hey, thanks so much for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

President Joe Biden met with lawmakers at the Oval Office for this much anticipated meeting about the debt ceiling. Joey, who did he meet with and where do we stand after this meeting?

Joey Garrison:

Well, President Biden met with the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy and the three other congressional leaders representing both parties. So they did so yesterday in a push to get something done to raise the debt ceiling to avert a potential default that is forecast by the end of the month on June 1st. And they went into this meeting, I don’t think, from Speaker McCarthy’s point of view, with a lot of optimism. He was pretty clear about that. And leaving the meeting, he said he didn’t see any “new movement.” And so I think after the meeting yesterday, we still see an impasse with a resolution that is still undefined.

Taylor Wilson:

And who has more leverage at this point?

Joey Garrison:

Republicans believe they do, and that’s as a result of the Republican-controlled House approving, albeit narrowly, a debt ceiling bill last month that would include $4.5 trillion in cuts. Many of those cuts are still unspecified. The White House, I think, went into this several months ago thinking that once Republicans outlined the sorts of cuts they’re looking at, that it would prove so unpopular that maybe they could get five house Republicans in swing districts to say, yeah, I’m not going to go for that, I want to help the President just raise the debt ceiling like we have many times before without conditions. But here we are in a spot where Republicans have stayed united and I think that’s put pressure on the President to pull back and ease up on his commitment not to negotiate over the debt ceiling. For now though, he continues to dig in just as McCarthy and Republicans do.

Taylor Wilson:

And are there any similar meetings planned on these talks in the coming days?

Joey Garrison:

Yeah, that’s one thing that did come out of this meeting. They all, the four and the President, planned to meet again on Friday. Their staffs are going to continue to communicate. But again, we did not see any real movement for the sake of their reach of the deal, there really needs to start seeing something sooner than later. Interestingly, the President held an address following the meeting yesterday in The Roosevelt Room, and he described a “productive meeting about the path forward.” He seemed to try to put an optimistic, upbeat spin on the events, but he left a lot of reporters there asking what he saw to give him that indication. And really, I don’t know if he had a great answer.

And the one thing that Biden said is he made clear in our meeting that default is not an option. Biden did say afterward in that same address that he’s “prepared to begin a separate discussion about his budget,” but not part of the debt ceiling negotiations. And so that’s a distinction the White House is trying to make, but it’s not really one that Republicans are on board with yet.

Taylor Wilson:

By some counts there are only five days remaining in session for Congress this month when both houses and Biden are in DC. Is it becoming more and more likely that we won’t be able to figure something out before June, Joey?

Joey Garrison:

Well, I wouldn’t want to ballpark it like I’m looking at a baseball game or something. It’s just a little too hard to say, but I mean, the clock is certainly ticking. And we’re talking June 1st, we’re not talking about even getting into June, in which we could have a government default. That would mean the US has effectively run out of money, that the US can’t meet its existing spending obligations from things already approved. For example, payments to Social Security recipients would be in jeopardy. So those are serious repercussions of a default. I think it is starting to set in here.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, Joey Garrison, thanks as always.

Joey Garrison:

All right, thanks for having me.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

It’s been just a couple of weeks since Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox News and he’s now starting a new show. He announced yesterday that his new program will be similar to his Fox show, but will stream on Twitter. In a video, Carlson said the platform is one of the few remaining that allow free speech. Twitter CEO Elon Musk said the company had not signed a deal with Carlson, but promised future revenue sharing opportunities that would allow him to monetize his appearances. Meanwhile, Fox News has been moving through different hosts as they work to find Carlson’s replacement. Next week, Kayleigh McEnany, former press secretary under then President Donald Trump, will get a tryout, according to the Los Angeles Times. Her appearance has come despite a racially offensive crack she made last week on the channel. According to Newsweek and posts across social media, many of Carlson’s supporters have called for a boycott of Fox News after his firing, something they appear to be doubling down on ahead of McEnany’s week of hosting.

♦

Women should be screened for breast cancer every other year, beginning at age 40 instead of age 50. That’s according to draft headlines released yesterday by the US Preventive Services Task Force, the independent national body of experts that sets standards for tests and screenings. Previous recommendations updated in 2016 said women younger than 50 who are concerned could discuss screening with their doctors. Now, the Task Force says screening at 40 could save 19% more lives. You can read more with a link in today’s show notes.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us every day of the week right here, wherever you get your podcasts. You can also email any comments you have to us at podcasts@usatoday.com. I’m back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Santos faces charges, Carlson announces new show: 5 Things podcast