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

A federal jury on Friday stated Donald Trump should pay E. Jean Carroll a complete of $83.3 million in damages for defaming her in statements he made as president after the author stated he had raped her in a New York division retailer within the Nineties.

The large civil verdict — which comes on prime of a $5 million sexual abuse and defamation verdict that Carroll won towards Trump final 12 months — was delivered lower than three hours after the nine-member jury started deliberating in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Trump was not in court docket for the studying of the unanimous verdict on compensatory and punitive damages by the nameless jury at 4:40 p.m. ET.

However shortly afterward, he stated in a social media publish that he would attraction it.

“This is a great victory for every woman who stands up when she’s been knocked down, and a huge defeat for every bully who has tried to keep a woman down,” Carroll stated in an announcement.

Her lawyer Roberta Kaplan stated, “Today’s verdict proves that the law applies to everyone in our country, even the rich, even the famous, even former presidents. There is a way to stand up to someone like Donald Trump who cares more about wealth, fame, and power than respecting the law.”

Jurors awarded Carroll $7.3 million for compensatory damages for emotional hurt, and one other $11 million for compensatory damages to her fame. Compensatory damages are awarded for precise losses suffered by somebody.

They then awarded her one other $65 million in punitive damages after discovering that Trump in a June 21, 2019, assertion about Carroll had “acted maliciously, out of hatred, ill will or spite, vindictively or out of wanton, reckless, or willful disregard of Ms. Carroll’s right.”

Trump in those comments and others since then has denied ever assembly Carroll, advised she made her declare to promote a ebook, and stated she was not “my type.”

Punitive damages are supposed to punish wrongdoing by a defendant.

Earlier Friday, Carroll’s lawyer in her closing argument had urged jurors to award her a “very large” sum of money, to make the billionaire former president “stop” slandering her.

“He doesn’t care about the law or truth but does care about money, and your decision on punitive damages is the only hope that he stops,” Kaplan stated.

“How much will it take to make him stop? You cost him lots and lots of money,” she stated.

Trump in a social media publish on his TruthSocial website after the decision wrote, “Absolutely ridiculous!”

“I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party,” wrote Trump, who’s the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination.

“Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon. They have taken away all First Amendment Rights. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!”

Trump to this point has not obtained a lot assist from appeals courts in difficult the 2 separate lawsuits by Carroll earlier than they went to trial.

However it’s potential that on attraction of the verdicts he might at the least win a discount within the sum of money he owes her.

Final month, the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court docket of Appeals rejected Trump’s argument that he was immune from damages within the present case as a result of he was president on the time he defamed Carroll.

The appeals court docket dominated that Trump had waived the potential protection of presidential immunity for not elevating it for years after Carroll first sued him in 2019.

Trump final 12 months posted $5.6 million as safety whereas he appeals the verdict within the prior intercourse abuse and defamation case.

When he appeals the present case’s verdict, he’ll probably need to publish greater than $90 million in safety.

Till the appeals are resolved, Carroll is not going to accumulate any cash from Trump.

Decide Lewis Kaplan, who is just not associated to Roberta, instructed jurors earlier than dismissing them from court docket: “My advice to you is that you never disclose that you were on this jury, and I won’t say anything more about it.”

Earlier than their deliberations started, Decide Kaplan instructed them that they needed to settle for as details that Trump “sexually assaulted” Carroll within the mid-Nineties and defamed the author in 2019.

“What remains for you to decide,” the choose stated, is whether or not “Mr. Trump acted maliciously when he made his two statements” about Carroll.

“You must accept as true the facts as I explained to you as they have already been decided,” the choose stated, referring to Trump’s sexual assault of Carroll and his slandering of her a long time later.

Trump appeared on throughout the directions with a frown.

Earlier, Trump stalked out of the courtroom after Carroll’s lawyer started her closing argument, during which she urged jurors to award financial damages “large enough that it will finally make him stop” slandering the author.

Trump’s dramatic departure got here minutes after the choose warned his lawyer Alina Habba that she was risking being tossed into jail earlier than summations started within the case.

“The record will reflect that Mr. Trump just rose and walked out of the courtroom,” the choose stated.

Trump returned about an hour later, after Carroll’s lawyer completed her summation and simply earlier than his lawyer started her closing argument.

Carroll in a 2019 New York journal article wrote that within the mid-Nineties, Trump had raped her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman division retailer on Fifth Avenue, simply up the road from the Trump Tower, the place he lived and labored.

Trump denied her allegation on the time, saying she had made it up.

One other Manhattan federal court docket jury final 12 months discovered he had sexually abused Carroll within the assault and had defamed her in statements he made in late 2022 denying her claims.

Kaplan dominated later in 2023 that that jury’s verdict meant that jurors within the present trial must settle for as legally established that Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll and had defamed her in his 2022 statements.

Trump on Friday posted a number of social media messages attacking Kaplan for rulings within the case, accusing the choose of getting “absolute hatred of Donald J. Trump (ME!).” Trump’s Fact social account posted 14 occasions about Carroll when he was within the courtroom.

In her closing argument, Carroll’s lawyer Kaplan requested jurors to impose punitive damages on Trump for refusing to cease defaming Carroll even after a jury final 12 months held him answerable for doing so and ordered him to pay her $5 million.

Trump’s feedback have sparked dying threats and harsh emails and tweets directed at Carroll, the lawyer stated.

“The dollar amount has to be very large,” Roberta Kaplan stated. “It is at least as much and probably much more than the $12 million” that the lawyer famous an knowledgeable witness had testified it might value to restore Carroll’s fame after Trump accused her of inventing her declare.

“Last trial, Donald J. Trump didn’t even bother to show up, but this trial where it is about damages he has been sure to be here and the one thing he cares about his money,” Kaplan stated.

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

“When you begin deliberations I encourage you to step back and think of bigger picture, a former president of the United States who sexually assaulted, defamed and continues to defame.”

Earlier, Trump’s lawyer Habba, who had already irked Decide Kaplan for exhibiting up late in court docket, angered him when she endured in arguing that protection attorneys ought to have the ability to present a slide to jurors throughout their summation that represented some tweets associated to Carroll.

“You are not going to use a slide to represent how many tweets there were, you are not using that slide, period,” Decide Kaplan stated.

When Habba stated, “I need to make a record,” referring to placing her argument on the report, the choose issued his warning.

“You are on the verge of spending time in the lockup, now sit down!” the choose instructed Habba.

Kaplan snapped at Habba a number of extra occasions throughout her closing argument, at one level telling her that if she continued urgent a selected level “there will be consequences.”

In her summation, Habba stated that Carroll “has failed to show she is entitled to any damages at all.”

“It is Ms. Carroll’s burden, not President Trump’s, to prove that his statements caused harm, and she failed to meet that burden, it is common sense,” Habba stated.

The lawyer additionally advised that Carroll had made up her claims of receiving “thousands of threats.”

Carroll had testified that she deleted most of these threats, making them unavailable as proof.

“Either Ms. Carroll is lying to you and those messages never existed in the first place or she deleted them and wants you to rely on them, and guess what, they are not here, and she has to give them to you to support her claim for damages, and that is a fact,” Habba stated.

Habba additionally stated that not solely did Carroll “not suffer any emotional harm” after publishing her declare in 2019 about Trump raping her, “she was happier than ever.”

“She told Vanity Fair [magazine] that the support she received walking down the streets was heartwarming,” Habba stated. “One of the most carefree and happy times of her life, that she was in a cocoon of love … does this sound like someone whose world has come crashing down, who can’t sleep?”

“She was enjoying the newfound attention she was receiving,” the lawyer stated.

Earlier than the arguments started and jurors entered the courtroom, the choose issued a warning.

“During closing arguments, no one is to say anything other than opposing counsel,” stated Kaplan. “There are to be no interruptions or audible comments by anyone else and that will apply when I charge the jury and that will apply to counsel then as well.”

Carroll’s attorneys have complained throughout the trial about Trump making feedback that have been audible to jurors whereas sitting together with his attorneys on the protection desk.

Kaplan beforehand dominated that due to the prior verdict, there was no authorized query that Trump defamed Carroll. That ruling left solely the query of financial damages remaining for the jury.

Trump throughout his very transient testimony within the trial Thursday stated of Carroll’s declare, “I consider it a false accusation.”

Kaplan struck that testimony, in gentle of the prior jury’s verdict which discovered he had sexually abused Carroll.

Trump earlier this week defeated former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley within the Republican presidential main in New Hampshire. Final week, he gained the Iowa GOP caucuses.