Donald Trump was convicted this Friday by a federal jury to pay $83.3 million in damages to E. Jean Carroll, who accused the former president of the United States of destroy your reputation as a trusted journalist by denying that he raped her almost three decades ago.
Carroll, 80, sued Trump in November 2019 for having denied five months earlier that he had raped her in the mid-nineties in a changing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan.
Trump, 77, He claimed that he had never heard of Carrolland she made up her story to boost sales of his memoirs. His lawyers claimed that Carroll wanted fame and enjoyed the attention of his followers for speaking out against his nemesis.
Last May, another jury sentenced Trump to pay $5 million to Carroll for a similar denial in October 2022, considering that had defamed and sexually abused Carroll, to which he has appealed.
In the current trial, Carroll had asked for at least $10 million more, saying Trump had “destroyed” her reputation as a respected journalist who told the truth. He also sought punitive damages, in part to prevent Trump from repeating his denials.
Trump’s campaign
District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw both trials, said the previous verdict was binding for the second trialwhich means that the only question for jurors was how much Trump should pay.
Trump, a Republican, has used Carroll’s case and his other legal travails to reinforce his campaign to return to occupy the White House in the November elections, in a probable confrontation against Democrat Joe Biden, who defeated him in 2020.
trump faces 91 felony charges in four criminal indictments, including two cases in which he is accused of trying to illegally overturn his defeat in the 2020 election. He has pleaded not guilty in all cases and has presented himself as a victim of politically motivated lies and an out-of-control judicial system.
During Carroll’s trial, Trump was heard muttering in court that The case was a “scam” and a “witch hunt”” and that he still did not know who Carroll was, which led the judge to admonish him twice to keep quiet.
Trump left the courtroom during Friday’s closing argument by Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, but returned for his own attorney’s argument. Kaplan had argued that Trump acted as if he were not bound by the law. “This trial is to get it to stop, once and for all,” she added. “Now is the time to make him pay dearly.“.
She was “happier than ever”
Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, disputed that it was the publication of excerpts from Carroll’s memoirs in New York magazine what triggered the attacksnot Trump’s denials that began five hours later.
He also argued that Carroll enjoyed his newfound fame and He was “happier than ever”“, citing his testimony that he had entered a “cocoon of love” by his followers.
A Northwestern University damages expert who testified on Carroll’s behalf estimated that the reputational damage from Trump’s statements was between 7.3 and 12.1 million dollars.
Thursday, Trump only spent four minutes to defend himself on the witness stand after Judge Kaplan prohibited him and his attorneys from revisiting issues that the first trial had settled.
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Trump was allowed confirm your October 2022 deposition testimonywhich had been shown to jurors, in which he called Carroll’s claims a “hoax” and said she was “mentally ill.”
Carroll wrote the “Ask E. Jean” column for Elle from 1993 to 2019, and often appeared on shows such as NBC’s “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America.” She said those appearances were sold out because of Trump. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Alistair Bell and Jonathan Oatis)