A New York City jury on Friday awarded E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million in her defamation trial against Donald Trump.
Carroll will receive $18.3 million in compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive penalties. Trump paid Carroll $18.3 million to $11 million in damages to fund a reputation repair campaign. The $7.3 million is for emotional harm caused by Trump’s 2019 public statements. Carol was all smiles as she and her legal team left court in a black SUV. They did not immediately answer questions after the court’s verdict.
Shortly after the decision was announced, Trump denounced the decision as “absolutely ridiculous” on “Truth Society” and said he would appeal.
“I completely disagree with both verdicts and will appeal the Biden-led witch hunt against me and the Republican Party,” the former president wrote. “Our legal system is out of control and being used as a political weapon. They Stripped of all First Amendment rights. This is not America!”
The ruling in Manhattan federal court comes less than a year after Carroll won $5 million in his sexual abuse and defamation trial against the former president.
The amount stems from Carroll’s rape accusations against the president in a June 2019 New York magazine article. The publication included excerpts from her then-upcoming book What Do We Need Men for? ” A gentle suggestion.
Carroll said in the excerpt that Trump raped her in a dressing room at a luxury Manhattan department store around early 1996. The thrust of Trump’s denials — such as saying she had lied and was a political operative — became the subject of her 2019 defamation lawsuit against him.
At the time, Carroll could not sue Trump over the alleged attack because it would have occurred outside the civil statute of limitations. In 2022, New York State enacted a novel law, the Adult Survivors Act, which provides adult plaintiffs a one-year window to file lawsuits for matters outside the civil statute of limitations.
Carroll filed another lawsuit, this time over events and defamatory statements that occurred after Trump’s presidency ended. The suit goes to trial first, with Judge Lewis Kaplan, the judge in both cases, determining that the jury’s finding that Trump sexually abused Carroll and tarnished her reputation will be heard in this trial. accepted as fact.
As a result, Trump cannot re-litigate her sexual abuse allegations. The jury was tasked simply with weighing the financial penalty for damaging Carroll’s reputation against the amount needed to prevent Trump from making more defamatory statements.
“I’m here because Donald Trump attacked me, and when I wrote about it, he said it never happened,” Carroll said on the witness stand. “He lied, It damaged my reputation. I thought he was going to deny it, but instead he said it was consensual, which it wasn’t. But that’s exactly what I expected him to say.”
She continued: “What really shocked me was that he was in the White House asking if anyone had information about me and, if so, to come forward as soon as possible because he wanted the world to know what was going on – to people like me. People should pay a high price.”
Trump did not attend Carroll’s first trial but attended the second – the first time she publicly confronted him in court. Trump’s behavior during the court showdown was consistent with his notorious bombastic behavior, prompting warnings from the judge.
“Mr. Trump has the right to be here. That right could be forfeited, if he is disruptive, which is reported to me, if he ignores court orders,” Kaplan warned. .
“Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial…I know you’re probably very eager for me to do that.”
“I’m going to love it, I’m going to love it,” Trump countered with a gesture.
“I know you would, obviously you can’t control yourself in this situation,” Kaplan said.
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The final stretch of the trial also marked another hallmark of Trump’s legacy: coronavirus-related chaos. On January 22, the trial proceedings were postponed after a juror showed symptoms of coronavirus; his lead attorney, Alina Habba, also told Judge Kaplan that she was feeling unwell and had been exposed to COVID-19.
Trump did testify on January 25. Kaplan limited the scope of her questions and answers because, under his previous ruling, he could not re-litigate her claims.
Haba was allowed to ask: “Do you stand by your testimony in the deposition?”
“One hundred percent, yes,” he said, referring to his testimony denying her claims.
“Are you denying this allegation because Ms. Carroll made the allegation?”
“Exactly. She said something that I think was a false accusation. It makes no difference,” Trump countered. That sparked opposition from Carroll’s camp. Everything after Kaplan said, “Yeah, I did it” hit.
“Did you instruct anyone in your statement to harm Ms. Carroll?”
“No. I’m just trying to defend myself, my family and, frankly, the presidency,” Trump said. Carroll’s team again objected. Kaplan believed that everything after “no” would be a hit, so jurors were ordered to ignore the statement.
Trump’s direct and cross-examination testimony lasted about two to three minutes in total.
