Will the White House address appear on "the national registry of sex offenders" once President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January of 2025? No, that's not true: Trump was not convicted of a sex offense in a criminal case. He was found liable in a civil case that involved sexual abuse allegations. Only people who have been convicted in a criminal case for sex crimes are placed on a sex offender registry.
The claim appeared in a post on X (archived here) where it was published on November 9, 2024. The caption read:
As of January 20, this address will, for the next 4 years, appear on the national registry of sex offenders. What a country.
This is what the X post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Nov 11 13:47:15 2024 UTC)
A photograph of the White House was included in the X post.
The post did not provide any evidence or explanation to back up the statement.
Lead Stories searched the term "national registry of sex offenders" (archived here), and found that there is no official list titled, "National Registry of Sex Offenders." There is the National Sex Offender Public Website, a Department of Justice website. There, the Department of Justice has compiled all of the sex offender registries from all states, Washington D.C., U.S. territories, and certain Native American tribes.
In May 2023, a jury found Donald Trump liable for sexual abuse against columnist E. Jean Carroll, levying a $5 million judgement against him. Carroll filed a civil case against Trump in New York Supreme Court in November 2019.
A civil case, like the one involving Trump and Carroll, involves a legal dispute between two or more parties. In contrast, a criminal case involves an act against society even though the victim might be an individual.
According to the National Center for Victims of Crime, convictions occur only in criminal cases.
Kirstan Conley (archived here), the deputy director of public information for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, told Lead Stories in a November 12, 2024, email:
Only individuals convicted of crimes specified in the state's Sex Offender Registration Act are required to register [as a sex offender].
According to the New York State government website, individuals who have been on parole, probation, or incarcerated for a sex offense on January 21, 1996, must register as sex offenders in the state. Additionally, people convicted of a sex offense on or after January 21, 1996, or sentenced to probation, jail or prison after that date must be registered upon reentering the community.
Since Trump was found liable in a civil case, there was no criminal conviction.
At the time this was written, USA Today had reviewed a similar claim.
More Lead Stories fact checks of claims concerning Donald Trump are here.
