A New York City jury has found in favor of a Democrat-funded columnist who claimed Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store in … well, she doesn’t know the year. 1995 or 1996.

The jury actually did reject E. Jean Carroll’s rape allegation … but grabbed the downgrade to “sexual battery” … and also found him guilty of “defamation.” Trump’s ordered to pay Carroll $5 million.

As this was a civil case, the standard was not “beyond reasonable doubt.” It was “more likely than not.” And how high’s that bar with a New York jury and the 1990’s Donald Trump? To say nothing of what the judicial system has done with political cases these past couple years. (What did Pelosi say about Trump’s other case in New York? Guilty until proven innocent?)

Trump immediately took to Truth Social to denounce the verdict. “I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS. THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE – A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!”

As of 5 p.m. Eastern, Trump has not announced a plan to appeal, but it’s a pretty sure bet he will.

Non-Trump Fan Byron York Lays Out Why Case is a Mess … and a Work of the Resistance

No, none of us was in the Bergdorf Goodman department store that day. And Trump’s ways back in the day certainly don’t help his case. We cannot know with certainty what or if anything happened. But the Kavanaugh scam, and the extent to which the Resistance forces went to drum up rape charges against Kavanaugh — as detailed on The Stream so poignantly by Mark Judge — have to give the fair-minded pause.

Then there’s Byron York. York, certainly no fan of Trump, published a devastating critique of the case at Washington Examiner in an article called The Rape Case That Started at a Resistance Party. He lays out not only the gaping holes in the case, but the fact it was born out of pressure from rabid Trump hater George Conway and other New York Resistance figures pushing Carroll to file suit. Conway even hooked her up with Me-Too lawyer Roberta Kaplan.

Carroll had only gone public with the decades-old allegation when it was time to publish a book in 2019 called What Do We Need Men For. Not when it happened. Not in the two decades after. Not when Trump hit it big again with The Apprentice. Not during the 2016 campaign when other women were accusing Trump of all manner of things. Not even 2017 when the “Me Too” movement went viral. But when a scandalous allegation against Trump could prove profitable.

And she decided to take Conway’s advice to sue when the 2020 campaign was heating up, Joe Biden was in the basement and the anti-Trump forces were pulling out all the stops to prevent his re-election.

Again, this is not to say something didn’t happen in that department store 27 … or 28 years … ago. Or diminish the seriousness of the allegation.

York also notes how the lawsuit was bankrolled by another rabid Trump hater and huge Democratic donor, tech billionaire Reid Hoffman. Hoffman is no stranger to this sort of business. In 2017, he funded a disinformation campaign to steal votes away from Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore. Not incidentally, Carroll denied anyone was paying her legal fees, before her lawyers had to admit to the court that wasn’t true.

Trump argued that he had never encountered Carroll at Bergdorf Goodman, which happens to be located across the street from Trump Tower. Since Carroll can’t tell you the year, let alone the date this alleged encounter happened, there is no way for Trump to prove he was elsewhere.

This goes for her two friends who testified that she told them about the alleged attack soon after. They don’t seem to know the exact year either … that one of the most famous men in the world allegedly attacked their friend.

All told, as York says “It means that this is a murky case, far too old to prove, with basic facts impossible to establish. It is being pushed forward by a group of politically motivated Resistance figures who have for years been trying to defeat Trump in any way they can. Carroll, the plaintiff, sometimes seems swept up by the energy they have created.”

And yet, today, a New York jury has found in her favor. Vive La Resistance!

Al Perrotta is the Managing Editor of The Stream, chief barista for The Brew and co-author, with John Zmirak, of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration. You can follow him at @StreamingAl at GETTR, Gab, Parler, and now at TRUTH Social.