Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million in defamation trial

On Friday, a federal jury awarded President Donald Trump a total of $83.3 million, saying he defamed E. Jean Carroll by saying he raped her in a New York department store in the 1990s. He said that he must pay compensation for the damages.

large private verdict The verdict comes less than three hours after nine jurors began deliberating, adding to the $5 million sexual abuse and defamation verdict that Carroll won against Trump last year. United States District Court in Manhattan.

President Trump did not appear in court for the anonymous jury’s unanimous verdict on compensatory and punitive damages to be read at 4:40 p.m. ET.

But shortly after, he said in a social media post that he intended to appeal.

“This is a huge victory for all the women who stand up when they are pushed down, and a huge defeat for all the bullies who tried to hold them down,” Carroll said in a statement.

“Today’s ruling proves that this law applies to everyone in this country, including the rich and famous, and even former presidents,” said her attorney, Roberta Kaplan. “There are ways to stand up to someone like Donald Trump who cares more about wealth.” They prioritize fame and power over respect for the law. ”

The jury awarded Carroll $7.3 million in damages for emotional harm and an additional $11 million in damages for defamation. Damages are awarded for actual loss suffered by someone.

President Trump’s statement regarding Carol on June 21, 2019 found that she “acted maliciously out of hatred, malice, or spite, out of revenge, or out of recklessness, recklessness, or willful disregard.” They awarded her an additional $65 million in punitive damages. Carol is right. ”

In these and other comments since then, President Trump has denied meeting Carole, insinuating that she did it to sell her book, and saying Carole is not “my type.” .

Punitive damages are intended to punish the defendant for his wrongdoing.

In closing arguments early Friday morning, Carroll’s lawyers urged jurors to award her a “very large” amount of money to “stop” the billionaire ex-president from defaming her. Ta.

“He doesn’t care about the law or the truth, but he cares about money. Your decision on punitive damages is the only hope to stop him,” Kaplan said.

“How much would it cost to get him to quit? We spent a lot of money on him,” she said.

“Absolutely ridiculous!” Trump wrote in a social media post on his site Truthsocial after the verdict.

“I completely disagree with both rulings and intend to appeal the entire Biden-led witch hunt focused on me and the Republican Party,” Trump, a front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, 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!”

Trump has so far not received much help from appeals courts in challenging Carroll’s two separate lawsuits before they go to trial.

But by appealing the judgment, there’s a chance he could at least win a reduction in the amount he owes her.

Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected Mr. Trump’s argument that he was immune from damages in this case because he was president at the time he defamed Ms. Carroll.

The appeals court ruled that Trump waived a potential defense by not raising presidential immunity in the years since Carroll first sued him in 2019. did.

Last year, Trump posted $5.6 million as collateral while appealing the verdict in an earlier sexual abuse and defamation lawsuit.

If he appeals the verdict in this case, he will likely have to post a bond of more than $90 million.

Carroll will not collect money from Trump until the appeal is resolved.

“My advice to you is never to reveal that you were on this juror,” Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is not related to Roberta, told jurors before dismissing them. I won’t say anything.”

Before deliberations began, Judge Kaplan ordered that Trump must admit that he “sexually assaulted” Carroll in the mid-1990s and defamed the writer in 2019.

“What you have to decide is whether Mr. Trump acted with malice in his two statements about Carroll,” the judge said.

“The facts I have laid out have been determined and must be accepted as truth,” the judge said, referring to Trump’s sexual assault of Carroll and his slander decades later.

Trump watched with raised eyebrows during the instructions.

Earlier, Trump shuffled out of the courtroom after Carroll’s lawyers began their closing arguments and told jurors that he had done enough to “finally stop” the smearing of Carroll. He asked that he be awarded monetary compensation in the amount of “.

Trump’s dramatic resignation came minutes after the judge warned his lawyer Alina Haba that he risked being thrown into prison before the case count began.

“The record will reflect that Mr. Trump stood up and walked out of the courtroom,” the judge said.

Mr. Trump returned about an hour later, just as Mr. Carroll’s lawyer had finished his summary and his lawyer was about to begin closing arguments.

In a 2019 New York Magazine article, Carroll said Trump raped her in the mid-1990s in the locker room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store on Fifth Avenue, just above Trump Tower, where she lived and worked. I wrote.

Trump denied her claims at the time and said she was making things up.

A separate Manhattan federal court jury found last year that he sexually abused Carroll in the attack and defamed her in late 2022 with statements denying her claims.

Kaplan said in late 2023 that the jury’s verdict would legally establish that Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll and defamed her in a 2022 statement. The court ruled that this meant that the jury in the trial had to accept it.

President Trump posted several messages on social media on Friday attacking Kaplan for the ruling in the case, accusing the judge of “absolutely hating Donald J. Trump (me!)” did. President Trump’s social account “Truth” posted 14 times about Carroll, who was in the courtroom.

Carroll’s lawyer, Kaplan, told jurors in his closing argument that Trump had defamed Carroll even though a jury last year found Trump liable and ordered him to pay $5 million. It sought punitive damages for failing to stop.

The attorney said that after Trump’s comments, death threats and malicious emails and tweets directed at Carroll increased.

“The amount has to be very large,” Roberta Kaplan said. The lawyer noted that an expert witness testified that restoring Carroll’s reputation could be expensive after President Trump denounced her claims as fabricated. “At least as much as $12 million, and probably much more.”

“In the last trial, Donald J. Trump didn’t even bother to show up, but in this one, where damages are at stake, he’s here, and the only thing he cares about is his money. ,” Kaplan said.

Kaplan said Trump “said he was worth billions of dollars and under oath he could pay $1 million a day for 10 years and still have money in the bank.”

“As we begin our deliberations, we encourage you to take a step back and consider the full picture of a former U.S. president who perpetrated sexual assault, defamation, and defamation.”

Earlier, Trump’s lawyer, Mr. Hubba, who had already angered Judge Kaplan for being late to court, was able to show jurors a slide showing Carroll-related tweets during his summing up. He continued to insist that he should, infuriating Judge Kaplan.

“I’m not going to use a slide to represent the number of tweets; I’m not using that slide,” Judge Kaplan said.

The judge issued a warning when Mr. Haba said he “needs to make a record” of putting his claims on the record.

“You’re about to spend your time locked up, now sit down!” the judge told Haba.

Mr. Kaplan berated Mr. Hubba several more times during closing arguments, at one point telling her that if she continued to press certain points, “there would be consequences.”

In his summing up, Haba said Carroll “has never shown that he is entitled to damages.”

“It is common knowledge that the burden is on Carroll, not President Trump, to prove that President Trump’s comments caused harm, and she has failed to meet that burden,” Haba said.

The lawyer also suggested that Carroll’s claim that she had received “thousands of threats” was a fabrication.

Carroll testified that he deleted most of those threats and made them unavailable as evidence.

“Either Ms. Carol is lying to you and those messages never existed to begin with, or she wants you to delete them and rely on you. But as you can imagine, , the message is not here. I have to give you the message to support her.’ You can sue for damages, but that’s a fact,” Haba said.

Haba also said that not only did Carole “not suffer any emotional damage” after going public with her claims of rape by President Trump in 2019, but “she was happier than ever.”

“She told Vanity Fair.” [magazine] “The support she received as she walked through the city was heart-warming,” Haba said. “One of the most carefree and happiest periods of her life, she was in a cocoon of her love…does this sound like the story of someone whose world has fallen apart?” The one who can’t sleep Will there be one? ”

“She was enjoying the newfound attention,” the lawyer said.

Before arguments began and the jury entered the courtroom, the judge issued a warning.

“During closing arguments, no one is allowed to say anything except the opposing attorney,” Kaplan said. “There should be no interruptions or audio comments by others. That applies when I make the charge to the jury, and it applies equally to my attorney at the time.”

Carroll’s lawyers complained that during the trial, President Trump, sitting in the defense box with his lawyers, made remarks that could be heard by jurors.

Mr. Kaplan previously ruled that there was no legal issue that Mr. Trump defamed Ms. Carroll because of a previous ruling. The verdict left the jury with only the issue of monetary damages.

“I believe this is a false accusation,” President Trump said of Carroll’s allegations during very brief testimony at Thursday’s trial.

Mr. Kaplan quashed his testimony in light of an earlier jury’s verdict in which he admitted sexually abusing Mr. Carroll.

Trump defeated former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley in New Hampshire’s Republican presidential primary earlier this week. Last week, he won the Iowa Republican caucuses.