The jury in the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial has reached a verdict, determining that the former president will have to pay a whopping sum for having disparaged Carroll in 2019 when he made statements about her and the rape allegations she brought against him. The Manhattan jury found that he owes her $83.3 million in damages for the statements.
As background, a jury found in 2023 that Trump had sexually abused, though did not “rape,” Ms. Carroll in the 1990s in a New York City department store. The jury also found that he defamed her. This case was focused only on what defamation damages he would have to pay her, with Carroll going into the case seeing $10 million in compensatory damages and an unspecified amount in punitive damages.
Of that gargantuan sum, $11 million is meant for a public “reputation repair” campaign for Carroll. $7.3 million is meant to atone for the emotional harm that former President Trump’s 2019 statements caused Carroll, and the remaining $65 million is in punitive damages against former President Trump, as the jury found the statements were malicious.
The former president apparently stormed out of the courtroom when the opposing attorney, lawyer Shawn Crowley, spoke. She said, referring to Trump, “he gets to lie. He gets to threaten. He gets to ignore a jury verdict. He gets to defy the law and the rules of this courtroom.” Continuing, she claimed, “You saw how he behaved through this trial. Rules don’t apply to Donald Trump.”
She then argued that Trump is not the victim, Carroll is. Doing so, she told the jury, “Ladies and gentleman, this isn’t a campaign rally. It’s not a press event. It’s a court of law and Miss Carroll’s life. Donald Trump sexually assaulted her. He defamed her. He is not the victim.”
The shocking total is over eight times what Carroll initially asked for in her lawsuit, CNN reports, and is far more than the court awarded Carroll in May of 2023, when it found that the former president sexually abused Carroll, and then defamed her in 2022 and denied the allegations. Of the $5 million the court awarded then, $3 million was for defamation.
Former President Trump, posting about the verdict on Truth Social, wrote, “Absolutely ridiculous! I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me 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. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!”
"*" indicates required fields
John Yoo, a former deputy attorney general, spoke on Fox News Channel about the case and reacting to the news. He said that the point of it was to tell Trump to “shut up.” In his words, “The whole point of this … is to tell Donald Trump to shut up … Not just that he should stop insulting Jean Carroll, but he has to stop disrespecting the justice system … he’s showing a fundamental disrespect for the justice system.”