A jury issued a stunning verdict on Friday against former President Donald Trump, finding him liable for $83.3 million in damages for defaming E. Jean Carroll.
Those damages were comprised of compensatory damages of $7.3 million for emotional harm and $11 million in “reputational repair,” plus $65 million in punitive damages.
The case arises from Carroll’s allegations in a 2019 article that Trump had raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s. Trump vociferously denied the accusations and launched a series of attacks on Carroll, all leading to her suing him for defamation and a separate civil claim for the alleged rape. The ex-president’s deposition included several shocking moments, including one where Trump — who had been adamant that Carroll was “not my type” — mistook a photo of her for his second wife, Marla Maples.
Last May, a New York jury found Trump civilly liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll, and awarded $5 million in damages.
Senior U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan presided over that previous trial and also oversaw the defamation trial, ruling at the beginning that the jury’s verdict would be binding in this proceeding. That ruling was the spark for numerous clashes between Judge Kaplan and Trump’s attorney Alina Habba, who was repeatedly admonished by the judge for attempting to argue Trump did not rape or assault Carroll.
The only matter at issue in this trial was the amount of damages, and Carroll’s legal team emphasized how Trump had continued to attack their client in the aftermath of that last verdict — including aggressively bashing her throughout the trial.
Trump briefly took the stand in his defense, after getting his own scolding from the judge for speaking over his own attorneys and disrupting the courtroom. Judge Kaplan ended up striking most of Trump’s comments from the record because they violated his ruling to not attempt to re-litigate the previous trial’s verdict.
Trump caused a scene again when he stomped out of the courtroom during the closing arguments by Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan (no relation to Judge Kaplan), as she urged the jury to issue a verdict of at least $24 million in compensatory damages in order to compensate Carroll for the reputational harm Trump caused, and “unusually high punitive damages” to stop Trump from continuing to defame and attack her.
The jurors were instructed by Judge Kaplan at the beginning of the trial to protect their anonymity — even with each other — over security concerns. Jurors were also transported to court each morning and brought into the building via an underground garage, among other precautions.
According to CNN, Judge Kaplan quoted “We the people” from the preamble to U.S. Constitution when delivering the jury instructions, telling the group of nine, “you, ladies and gentlemen, stand in for all of the people,” to fulfill a crucial role in our justice system that “dates back to the earliest days of our nation.”
Judge Kaplan added in the instructions that if the jury was unable to reach a verdict by 4:30 pm ET, they needed to send a note saying they wanted to stay later.
The jurors began their deliberations shortly before 2 pm ET. The verdict form asked the jury to decide if Carroll was entitled to two types of damages, and how much. The first type, compensatory damages, covered two categories — reputational and emotional damages. The second, punitive damages, asked the jury to determine if Trump acted “maliciously, out of hatred, ill will, or spite, or in wanton, reckless, or willful disregard of Ms. Carroll’s rights” regarding two separate statements.
Trump was not in the courtroom when the verdict was read. According to CNN, the former president departed the courthouse and his motorcade was seen driving away around 4 pm ET en route to the airport, reportedly to travel to a campaign event in Nevada.
This is a breaking news story and has been updated.
Watch above via CNN.
