A jury has determined that Donald Trump must pay E Jean Carroll more than $83m for his defamatory statements about the former Elle magazine writer, marking the year’s first federal court verdict against the former president as he campaigns for his return to the White House.
The nine-member jury awarded Ms Carroll $65m in punitive damages in addition to more than $18m in compensatory damages after he was previously found liable for sexual abuse and then smeared her sexual assault allegations as a lie.
A verdict was delivered on Friday after roughly three hours of deliberation following a contentious two-week civil trial in a federal courtroom in Manhattan, where Mr Trump’s attorneys aggressively argued against Ms Carroll’s case while the former president repeatedly attacked and potentially defamed her in press conferences and in dozens of posts on his Truth Social.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan barred Mr Trump and his attorneys from disputing the facts of the case, which stems from an earlier jury trial surrounding his statements about allegations that he raped her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s.
Last year, a jury found him liable for sexually abusing Ms Carroll and for defamation in a verdict that awarded Ms Carroll $5m. She then filed a second case on additional defamation claims.
Ms Carroll and her attorneys hugged and cried in the courtroom after the verdict was announced.
Mr Trump left the courthouse moments earlier. Earlier on Friday, he abruptly stormed out of the courtroom in the middle of closing arguments from Ms Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan, who noted to jurors that the first verdict against him was not enough to stop him from repeating potentially defamatory statements.
“No, not at all,” she said. “Not even for 24 hours.”
The frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president has continued to smear Ms Carroll as a liar and a “whack job” who fabricated her claims and insists that he has never even met her.
In the latest trial, Mr Trump and his attorney Alina Habba were repeatedly scolded by the judge for their attempts to speak out in court or improperly introduce evidence.
The verdict adds to Mr Trump’s growing list of legal liabilities, including 91 criminal charges stemming from four separate federal and state-level charges and a potentially devastating lawsuit that could imperil his New York-based family business and his vast real estate empire.
Following 11 weeks of witness testimony in a civil trial against his Trump Organization, a New York judge is expected to deliver a judgment this month that could see $370m in fines against him, his adult sons and chief associates stemming from a blockbuster lawsuit alleging more than a decade of fraud.
This is a developing story
