Former President Donald Trump has been ordered to pay $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll after a New York jury found him guilty of defamation.
The writer accused Trump of slandering her reputation after he denied her claims that he sexually abused her. The total damages include $18.3 million in compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive damages.
The nine jurors – seven men and two women – deliberated for less than three hours on Jan. 26 before returning the verdict. The penalty awarded to Carroll is almost double the $24 million originally sought by her attorneys.
“This case is also about punishing Donald Trump,” said one of Carroll’s lawyers during the closing arguments, per the BBC. “This trial is about getting him to stop once and for all.”
After the verdict was released, Trump wrote in a statement that he “fully disagree[s] with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on [him and the Republican Party.”
"Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon. They have taken away all First Amendment Rights,” he added. “THIS IS NOT AMERICA.”
The case centered around statements Trump made while serving as president in 2019. At the time, he said Carroll’s allegations were a lie fabricated to drum up attention for her memoir, What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal.
In an excerpt from her book published by New York Magazine in June of 2019, Carroll accused Trump of assaulting her in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodmans in either the fall of 1995 or the spring of 1996 when she was 52.
Carroll claimed that she and Trump ran into each other on the street, that he recognized her from her talk show, and that he asked her to help him buy a gift, and then asked her to try on lingerie.
She concludes the description of the alleged attack by saying the unlaundered black wool Donna Karan coatdress she was wearing is still hanging in her closet and that she has never had sex with anyone since.
Carroll never went to the police and the store no longer has the surveillance footage that could have confirmed she and Trump were in Bergdorf at the same time.
Trump was found liable for battery and defamation during a civil trial in 2023. Carroll was awarded a total of $5 million for two claims. The former president maintained his innocence.
“I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social. “THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE - A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!”
Trump has never been criminally convicted of assaulting Carroll.
“The current trial, unlike the prior one, was marked by frequent appearances from Trump, who wasn’t required to attend but did so on most days, in what appeared to be a strategic choice to leverage his legal troubles to rally his supporters as he campaigns for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination,” reports The Wall Street Journal.
While asked about his tweets about Carroll’s accusation during the trial, Trump maintained that his statements were not threats and that he was defending himself against a false allegation.
