Trump ordered to pay $83.3M to writer E. Jean Carroll over alleged reputation damage
Carroll filed a lawsuit against Trump in 2022. In her statement, she alleged that Trump had raped her in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman in 1995. She publicly disclosed this information for the first time in her 2019 book "What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal."
Trump, both as a president and a private individual, denied Carroll's allegations, describing them as fiction invented to boost her book's sales. He claimed that "she's not my type."
The jury panel, comprised of seven men and two women, deliberated for about 2 hours and 45 minutes on Friday. They decided that Trump should pay Carroll compensation of 18.3 million dollars – 11 million to fund a campaign to repair her reputation and 7.3 million dollars for emotional distress caused by public statements.
They also found that Trump should pay 65 million dollars in punitive damages for his malicious conduct when testifying about Carroll.
The compensation amount that Trump must pay is over eight times larger than the one Carroll proposed in her original lawsuit.
Trump's rebuttal
"Absolutely ridiculous!" Trump commented in a statement released shortly after the verdict was announced, and also declared his intention to file an appeal. "Our legal system has gotten out of control and is being used as a political weapon," he added.
As reported by CNN, in May last year, another grand jury in Manhattan approved a total of 5 million dollars in compensation for Carroll, including nearly 3 million for defamation. The jury decided that Trump had sexually exploited Carroll and later defamed her in 2022 through public statements in which he discredited her and denied the allegations.
Judge Lewis Kaplan instructed members of the jury that they could speak publicly about their deliberations, but they could not reveal the identity of any jurors.
"Never reveal that you were a member of this jury," he stressed.
The judge had previously ruled that Carroll was telling the truth about the assault and branded Trump's denial statements as defamatory. As he noted, "usually when people are held accountable for false and defamatory lies, they stop doing that." Trump continued to defame Ms. Carroll, even while the trial was underway, Kaplan pointed out.
The closing speech for the defense was given by Alina Habba, Trump's lawyer. She contended, among other things, that Carroll failed to prove the "causal link" between Trump's statement and harassment. However, the lawyer asserted that the writer deserved at least 24 million dollars in compensation.
