Donald Trump was ordered by a federal jury on Friday to pay $83.3 million in damages to E. Jean Carroll, who accused the previous U.S. president of destroying her status as a reliable journalist by denying he raped her practically three many years in the past.
Carroll, 80, sued Trump in November 2019 over his denials 5 months earlier that he had raped her within the mid-Nineteen Nineties in a Bergdorf Goodman division retailer dressing room in Manhattan.
Trump, 77, claimed that he had by no means heard of Carroll, and that she made up her story to spice up gross sales of her memoir.
His legal professionals mentioned Carroll was hungry for fame and loved the eye from supporters for talking out towards her nemesis.
One other jury final Might ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million over an analogous October 2022 denial, discovering that he had defamed and sexually abused Carroll. Trump is interesting that call.
Within the present trial, Carroll had sought not less than $10 million extra, saying Trump had “shattered” her status as a revered journalist who advised the reality.
She additionally sought punitive damages, partly to maintain Trump from repeating his denials.
TRUMP’S CAMPAIGN
U.S. District Choose Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw each trials, mentioned the sooner verdict was binding for the second trial, that means the one subject for jurors was how a lot Trump ought to pay.
Trump, a Republican, has used Carroll’s case and his different authorized travails to bolster his marketing campaign to retake the White Home within the November election in a possible showdown towards Democrat Joe Biden, who beat him in 2020.
Trump faces 91 felony counts in 4 prison indictments, together with two instances accusing him of making an attempt to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss. He has pleaded not responsible in all of the instances, and has portrayed himself because the sufferer of politically motivated lies and an out-of-control judicial system.
Through the Carroll trial, Trump was heard muttering in court docket that the case was a “con job” and “witch hunt” and that he nonetheless didn’t know who Carroll was, prompting the decide to twice admonish him to maintain quiet.
Trump stalked out of the courtroom through the closing argument on Friday by Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, however returned for his personal lawyer’s argument.
Kaplan, who just isn’t associated to the decide, had argued that Trump acted as if he wasn’t sure by the regulation.
“This trial is about getting him to cease, as soon as and for all,” she added. “Now’s the time to make him pay for it dearly.”
“COCOON OF LOVE”
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba countered that it was the publication of excerpts from Carroll’s memoir in New York journal that triggered the assaults, not Trump’s denials that started 5 hours later.
She additionally argued that Carroll loved her newfound fame and was “happier than ever,” citing her testimony that she had entered a “cocoon of affection” from her supporters.
A Northwestern College damages skilled who testified on Carroll’s behalf estimated the reputational hurt from Trump’s statements was $7.3 million to $12.1 million.
On Thursday, Trump spent solely 4 minutes defending himself on the witness stand after Choose Kaplan forbade him and his legal professionals from revisiting points that the primary trial had settled.
Trump was allowed to substantiate his October 2022 deposition testimony, which jurors had been proven, through which he referred to as Carroll’s claims a “hoax” and mentioned she was “mentally sick.”
Carroll wrote the “Ask E. Jean” column for Elle from 1993 to 2019, and sometimes appeared on such packages as NBC’s At present and ABC’s Good Morning America. She mentioned these appearances dried up due to Trump.
—By Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen
