Jury orders Trump to pay $83.3 million in damages to E. Jean Carroll
Former President Donald Trump was ordered to pay $83.3 million to advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in a defamation lawsuit on Friday stemming from his denial of her claim that he raped her in the mid-1990s.
A jury found Trump should pay $65 million in punitive damages to former Elle magazine columnist, as well as $18.3 million in compensatory damages.
Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York in the mid-1990s. He denied the accusations and called them a “hoax” and Carroll a “liar.”
Trump was already found liable for sexually assaulting Carroll during a separate defamation trial last May, in which jurors determined that while there was not a preponderance of evidence to prove that Trump raped Carroll, there was enough evidence to prove that he sexually abused her and defamed her after she stepped forward with her claims.
The sole question for the nine-person jury to decide on Friday was how much in damages Trump ought to pay. The $83.3 million verdict adds to the $5 million Trump owes Carroll from the May trial, which broke down to $2 million for sexual abuse, $1.7 million for reputation repair damages, and $1 million for malice and injury related to defamation.
Carroll’s attorney said during closing arguments, per the Messenger, that this time around, Carroll should be awarded a minimum of $12 million in damages.
The decision comes after Trump exited the Manhattan courtroom in a huff on Friday while an attorney for writer E. Jean Carroll made her closing arguments in the defamation case against him.
Trump, according to multiple reports, stormed out of the room on the final day of the trial just as Carroll’s attorney said Trump believes laws “don’t apply to him.” Trump returned an hour later, according to NBC.
This is a developing story and will be updated.