Trump must pay $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll in defamation case, jury says

NEW YORK —  A jury awarded $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll on Friday in a stinging rebuke to former President Trump for his continued social media attacks against the longtime advice columnist after a previous trial found that he sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store.

The award, when coupled with a $5-million sexual assault and defamation verdict last year from another jury in a case brought by Carroll, raised to $88.3 million what Trump must pay her. Protesting, he said he would appeal.

Carroll, 80, clutched her lawyers’ hands and smiled as the seven-man, two-woman jury delivered its verdict.

She declined to comment as she left the Manhattan federal courthouse but issued a statement later through a publicist, saying: “This is a great victory for every woman who stands up when she’s been knocked down, and a huge defeat for every bully who has tried to keep a woman down.”

Trump had attended the trial earlier in the day but stormed out of the courtroom during closing arguments read by Carroll’s attorney. He returned for his own attorney’s closing argument and for a portion of the deliberations but left the courthouse half an hour before the verdict was read.

“Absolutely ridiculous!” he said in a statement shortly afterward. “Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon.”

It was the second time in nine months that a civil jury returned a verdict related to Carroll’s claim that a chance encounter with Trump in 1996 at Bergdorf Goodman’s Fifth Avenue store ended violently. She said Trump slammed her against a dressing room wall, pulled down her tights and forced himself on her.

The jury in that case found in May that Trump was liable for sexually abusing Carroll and then defaming her by claiming she made it up; it did not find him liable for rape. He is appealing that award too.

The former president also is awaiting a verdict in a New York civil fraud trial, in which state lawyers are seeking $370 million after he was found liable for fraud related to loans and deals made using financial statements that exaggerated his wealth.

As for Trump’s ability to pay, he reported having about $294 million in cash or cash equivalents on his most recent annual financial statement, for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2021. Testifying at his civil fraud trial in November, he boasted: “I have very little debt, and I have a lot of cash.”

Trump skipped the first trial. He later expressed regret for not attending and insisted on testifying in the second trial — though the judge limited what he could say, ruling he had missed his chance to argue that he was innocent. He spent only a few minutes on the witness stand Thursday, during which he denied attacking Carroll, then left court grumbling, “This is not America.”

The latest jury was only asked how much Trump, 77, should pay Carroll for two statements he made as president when he answered reporters’ questions after excerpts of Carroll’s memoir were published in a magazine — damages that couldn’t be decided earlier because of legal appeals. Jurors were not asked to reconsider the issue of whether the assault actually happened.

Carroll’s attorneys had requested $24 million in compensatory damages and “an unusually high punitive award.” The jury awarded $18.3 million in compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive damages — meant to deter future behavior.

Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, urged jurors in her closing argument Friday to punish Trump enough that he would stop a steady stream of public statements smearing Carroll as a liar and a “whack job.”

Trump shook his head vigorously as Kaplan spoke, then suddenly stood and walked out, taking Secret Service agents with him. His exit came only minutes after Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, without the jury present, threatened to send Trump attorney Alina Habba to jail for continuing to talk when he told her she was finished.

“You are on the verge of spending some time in the lockup. Now sit down,” Judge Kaplan, who is not related to Carroll’s lawyer, told Habba, who immediately complied.

The trial reached its conclusion as Trump is the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.

He has sought to turn his various trials and legal vulnerabilities into an advantage, portraying them as evidence of a weaponized judicial and political system.

Though there’s no evidence that President Biden or anyone in the White House has influenced any of the legal cases against him, Trump’s line of argument has resonated with his most loyal supporters.

Carroll testified early in the trial that Trump’s public statements had led to death threats.

“He shattered my reputation,” she said. “I am here to get my reputation back and to stop him from telling lies about me.”

She said she’d had an electronic fence installed around the cabin in upstate New York where she lives, warned neighbors of the threats and bought bullets for a gun she keeps by her bed.

“Previously, I was known simply as a journalist and had a column, and now I’m known as the liar, the fraud and the whack job,” Carroll testified.

Trump’s lawyer, Habba, told jurors that Carroll had been enriched by her accusations against Trump and achieved fame she had craved. She said no damages were warranted.

To support Carroll’s request for millions in damages, Northwestern University sociologist Ashlee Humphreys told the jury that Trump’s 2019 statements had caused between $7.2 million and $12.1 million in harm to Carroll’s reputation.

When Trump testified, Judge Kaplan gave him little room to maneuver since he was not be permitted to try to revive issues settled in the first trial.

“It is a very well-established legal principle in this country that prevents do-overs by disappointed litigants,” Kaplan said.

“He lost it and he is bound. And the jury will be instructed that, regardless of what he says in court here today, he did it, as far as they’re concerned. That is the law,” Kaplan said shortly before Trump testified.

After he swore to tell the truth, Trump was asked if he stood by a deposition in which he called Carroll a “liar” and a “whack job.” He answered: “One-hundred percent. Yes.”

Asked if he denied the allegation because Carroll made an accusation, he responded: “That’s exactly right. She said something, I consider it a false accusation.” Asked if he ever instructed anyone to hurt Carroll, he said: “No. I just wanted to defend myself, my family, and frankly, the presidency.”

The judge ordered the jury to disregard the “false accusation” comment and everything Trump said after “No” to the last question.

Earlier in the trial, Trump tested the judge’s tolerance. When he complained to his lawyers about a “witch hunt” and a “con job” within earshot of jurors, Kaplan threatened to eject him from the courtroom if it happened again. “I would love it,” Trump said. Later, Trump told reporters that Kaplan was a “nasty judge.”

Offenhartz and Neumeister write for the Associated Press.