A New York City jury on Friday awarded E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million in her defamation case against Donald Trump.
Carroll will receive $18.3 million in damages and $65 million in punitive retribution. President Trump paid Carroll between $18.3 million and $11 million in damages to fund his reputational damage recovery campaign. The $7.3 million will be earmarked for emotional harm caused by President Trump's public statements in 2019. Carroll and his attorneys were all smiles as they arrived in court in a black SUV. Immediately after appearing in court, they did not answer questions.
Shortly after the decision was announced, President Trump denounced it on Truth Social as “absolutely ridiculous” and said he planned to appeal.
“I completely disagree with both rulings and challenge the entire Biden-led witch hunt focused on me and the Republican Party,” the former president wrote. “Our legal system is out of control and being used as a political weapon. They have taken away all of our First Amendment rights. This is not America!”
The Manhattan federal court ruling comes less than a year after Carroll won $5 million in a sexual abuse and defamation case against the former president.
The amount stems from Carroll's rape allegation against the president in a June 2019 New York magazine article. The publication featured excerpts from her then-upcoming book, What Do We Need Men For? A modest proposal.
In the excerpt, Carroll said Trump raped her in a dressing room at an upscale Manhattan department store around early 1996. For example, President Trump's denial that she lied or was a political operative became her theme in 2019. defamation suit against him.
At the time, Carroll could not sue Trump for assault. This is because the assault was committed outside the scope of the civil statute of limitations. A new New York state law, the Adult Survivors Act, enacted in 2022 provides a one-year window for adult accusers to file lawsuits for cases outside the civil statute of limitations.
Carroll filed a separate lawsuit over the incident and defamatory comments after Trump's presidency ended. The case went to trial first, with the judge in both cases, Lewis Kaplan, ruling that the jury's findings that Trump sexually abused Carole and damaged her reputation could be accepted as fact in the trial.
As a result, Trump was unable to re-litigate his sexual abuse claims. Jurors were tasked only with considering the fine for damaging Carroll's reputation and the fine needed to prevent Trump from making further defamatory statements.
“I'm here because Donald Trump assaulted me, and when I wrote about it, I was told it never happened,” Carroll said from the stage. “He lied and my reputation was in ruins. I expected him to deny it, but he says it was consensual when he didn't.” . But that's what I expected him to say.”
She continued: “What really bothered me about this was that the White House asked me if anyone had any information about me, and if so, please come forward as soon as possible, because all over the world… 'Because I want people to know what's really going on and that people like me should pay dearly.' ”
Although Trump did not attend Carroll's first trial, he appeared at her second trial, marking the first time he has publicly confronted Carroll in court. Trump's demeanor during the courtroom confrontation was consistent with his notoriously bombastic behavior, and he was admonished by the judge.
“Mr. Trump has a right to be here. That right can be revoked if he becomes disruptive, as has been reported to me, and if he ignores court orders. could be stripped,” Kaplan warned.
“Mr. Trump, I hope I don't have to think about removing you from the trial…I understand that you probably very much want me to do that.”
President Trump retorted with a gesture, saying, “I'm very happy about that. I'm very happy about that.”
“You would think so, but it seems like you can't control yourself in this situation,” Kaplan said.
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The final stages of the trial were also marked by another hallmark of President Trump's legacy: coronavirus-related chaos. On January 22, the trial was postponed after one juror developed coronavirus symptoms. His lead attorney, Alina Haba, also told Judge Kaplan that he was not feeling well and had contracted the coronavirus.
Trump took the stand on January 25th. Mr. Kaplan limited the scope of her questions and answers in accordance with her previous ruling that her claims could not be re-litigated.
Haba was allowed to ask, “Do you stand by your testimony at the deposition?”
“That's 100 percent true,” he said, referring to a deposition denying her claims.
“Did you deny the accusation because Mr. Carole made the accusation?”
“That's exactly right. She said something, I think it's a false accusation. There's no difference,” President Trump retorted. This caused opposition from Carroll's camp. Kaplan said everything after “Yes, I did it” was devastating.
“Did you ever instruct anyone to hurt Ms. Carol with anything you said?”
“No. I just wanted to protect myself and my family and frankly the office of the president,” Trump said. Carroll's team again objected. Jurors were instructed to ignore this statement because Kaplan considered everything after “no” to be invalid.
Trump's direct and counter testimony lasted a total of about two to three minutes.
