Jury rules Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million in damages for defamation

A
federal
jury
on
Friday
said

Donald
Trump
must
pay

E.
Jean
Carroll
a
total
of
$83.3
million
in
damages
for
defaming
her
in
statements
he
made
as

president
after
the
writer
said
he
had
raped
her
in
a

New
York
department
store
in
the
1990s.

The
massive
civil

verdict
—
which
comes
on
top
of
a
$5
million
sexual
abuse
and
defamation
verdict
that

Carroll
won
against
Trump
last
year
—
was
delivered
less
than
three
hours
after
the
nine-member
jury
began
deliberating
in

U.S.
District
Court
in
Manhattan.

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

But
shortly
afterward,
he
said
in
a
social
media
post
that
he
would
appeal
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
said
in
a
statement.

Her
attorney
Roberta
Kaplan
said,
“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
harm,
and
another
$11
million
for
compensatory
damages
to
her
reputation.
Compensatory
damages
are
awarded
for
actual
losses
suffered
by
someone.

They
then
awarded
her
another
$65
million
in
punitive
damages
after
finding
that
Trump
in
a
June
21,
2019,
statement
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
meeting
Carroll,
suggested
she
made
her
claim
to
sell
a
book,
and
said
she
was
not
“my
type.”

Punitive
damages
are
meant
to
punish
wrongdoing
by
a
defendant.

Earlier
Friday,
Carroll’s
lawyer
in
her
closing
argument
had
urged
jurors
to
award
her
a
“very
large”
amount
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
said.

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

Trump
in
a
social
media
post
on
his
TruthSocial
site
after
the
verdict
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
is
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
so
far
has
not
received
much
help
from
appeals
courts
in
challenging
the
two
separate
lawsuits
by
Carroll
before
they
went
to
trial.

But
it
is
possible
that
on
appeal
of
the
verdicts
he
could
at
least
win
a
reduction
in
the
amount
of
money
he
owes
her.

Last
month,
the
2nd
Circuit
U.S.
Court
of
Appeals
rejected
Trump’s
argument
that
he
was

immune
from
damages
in
the
current
case
because
he
was
president
at
the
time
he
defamed
Carroll.

The
appeals
court
ruled
that
Trump
had
waived
the
potential
defense
of
presidential
immunity
for
not
raising
it
for
years
after
Carroll
first
sued
him
in
2019.

Trump
last
year
posted
$5.6
million
as
security
while
he

appeals
the
verdict
in
the
prior
sex
abuse
and
defamation
case.

When
he
appeals
the
current
case’s
verdict,
he
will
likely
have
to
post
more
than
$90
million
in
security.

Until
the
appeals
are
resolved,
Carroll
will
not
collect
any
money
from
Trump.

Judge
Lewis
Kaplan,
who
is
not
related
to
Roberta,
told
jurors
before
dismissing
them
from
court:
“My
advice
to
you
is
that
you
never
disclose
that
you
were
on
this
jury,
and
I
won’t
say
anything
more
about
it.”

Before
their
deliberations
began,
Judge
Kaplan
instructed
them
that
they
had
to
accept
as
facts
that
Trump
“sexually
assaulted”
Carroll
in
the
mid-1990s
and
defamed
the
writer
in
2019.

“What
remains
for
you
to
decide,”
the
judge
said,
is
whether
“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
judge
said,
referring
to
Trump’s
sexual
assault
of
Carroll
and
his
slandering
of
her
decades
later.

Trump
looked
on
during
the
instructions
with
a
frown.

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

Trump’s
dramatic
departure
came
minutes
after
the
judge
warned
his
lawyer

Alina
Habba
that
she
was
risking
being
tossed
into
jail
before
summations
began
in
the
case.

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

Trump
returned
about
an
hour
later,
after
Carroll’s
attorney
finished
her
summation
and
just
before
his
attorney
began
her
closing
argument.

Carroll
in
a
2019
New
York
magazine
article
wrote
that
in
the
mid-1990s,
Trump
had
raped
her
in
a
dressing
room
at
Bergdorf
Goodman
department
store
on
Fifth
Avenue,
just
up
the
street
from
the
Trump
Tower,
where
he
lived
and
worked.

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

Another
Manhattan
federal
court
jury
last
year
found
he
had
sexually
abused
Carroll
in
the
attack
and
had
defamed
her
in
statements
he
made
in
late
2022
denying
her
claims.

Kaplan
ruled
later
in
2023
that
that
jury’s
verdict
meant
that
jurors
in
the
current
trial
would
have
to
accept
as
legally
established
that
Trump
had
sexually
assaulted
Carroll
and
had
defamed
her
in
his
2022
statements.

Trump
on
Friday
posted
several
social
media
messages
attacking
Kaplan
for
rulings
in
the
case,
accusing
the
judge
of
having
“absolute
hatred
of
Donald
J.
Trump
(ME!).”
Trump’s
Truth
social
account
posted
14
times
about
Carroll
when
he
was
in
the
courtroom.

In
her
closing
argument,
Carroll’s
lawyer
Kaplan
asked
jurors
to
impose
punitive
damages
on
Trump
for
refusing
to
stop
defaming
Carroll
even
after
a
jury
last
year
held
him
liable
for
doing
so
and
ordered
him
to
pay
her
$5
million.

Trump’s
comments
have
sparked
death
threats
and
vicious
emails
and
tweets
directed
at
Carroll,
the
lawyer
said.

“The
dollar
amount
has
to
be
very
large,”
Roberta
Kaplan
said.
“It
is
at
least
as
much
and
probably
much
more
than
the
$12
million”
that
the
lawyer
noted
an
expert
witness
had
testified
it
could
cost
to
repair
Carroll’s
reputation
after
Trump
accused
her
of
inventing
her
claim.

“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
said.

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
said.

“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
Judge
Kaplan
for
showing
up
late
in
court,
angered
him
when
she
persisted
in
arguing
that
defense
lawyers
should
be
able
to
show
a
slide
to
jurors
during
their
summation
that
represented
some
tweets
related
to
Carroll.

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

When
Habba
said,
“I
need
to
make
a
record,”
referring
to
putting
her
argument
on
the
record,
the
judge
issued
his
warning.

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

Kaplan
snapped
at
Habba
several
more
times
during
her
closing
argument,
at
one
point
telling
her
that
if
she
continued
pressing
a
particular
point
“there
will
be
consequences.”

In
her
summation,
Habba
said
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
said.

The
attorney
also
suggested
that
Carroll
had
made
up
her
claims
of
receiving
“thousands
of
threats.”

Carroll
had
testified
that
she
deleted
most
of
those
threats,
making
them
unavailable
as
evidence.

“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
said.

Habba
also
said
that
not
only
did
Carroll
“not
suffer
any
emotional
harm”
after
publishing
her
claim
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
said.
“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
said.

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

“During
closing
arguments,
no
one
is
to
say
anything
other
than
opposing
counsel,”
said
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
lawyers
have
complained
during
the
trial
about
Trump
making
comments
that
were
audible
to
jurors
while
sitting
with
his
attorneys
at
the
defense
table.

Kaplan
previously
ruled
that
because
of
the
prior
verdict,
there
was
no
legal
question
that
Trump
defamed
Carroll.
That
ruling
left
only
the
question
of
monetary
damages
remaining
for
the
jury.

Trump
during
his
very
brief
testimony
in
the
trial
Thursday
said
of
Carroll’s
claim,
“I
consider
it
a
false
accusation.”

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

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