E. Jean Carroll defamation case: Trump ordered to pay $83 million
The judge in the case subsequently denied Trump's motion for mistrial.
Former President Donald Trump, at the end of a five-day trial, has been ordered to pay $83.3 million in damages to former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll for defaming her in 2019 when he denied her allegations of sexual abuse.
Last year, in a separate trial, a jury determined that Trump was liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the 1990s, and that he defamed her in a 2022 social media post by calling her allegations "a Hoax and a lie" and saying "This woman is not my type!"
Trump has denied all wrongdoing and has said he doesn't know who Carroll is.
Top headlines:
- Jury awards Carroll $83.3 million in damages
- Trump walks out during plaintiff's closing statement
- Trump testifies he denied allegations to defend himself
- Repairing Carroll's reputation would cost $12M, says expert
- 'I would love it,' Trump says to judge's threat to toss him
- Trump 'ended the world that I had been living in,' Carroll says
- 'This is not a do-over,' judge instructs jury
Carroll rests her case, defense seeks directed verdict
Following concluding statements, E. Jean Carroll's attorneys have rested their case.
They will now give way to Trump's attorneys to present the defense's case.
The defense, meanwhile, has asked the judge for a directed verdict to halt the proceedings and decide the case in their favor.
Carroll's attorneys highlight clips from Trump's 2022 deposition
E. Jean Carroll's attorneys ended their defamation case against former President Trump by showing the jury some of Trump's social media posts and soundbites from his campaign rallies in which he repeats the defamatory statements he has made about her.
The jury also saw a portion of Trump's videotaped deposition for Carroll's case that he sat for in October 2022, in which Trump was given a copy of the 2019 New York magazine article that first published Carroll's sexual assault allegation.
"Did you ever read this article?" plaintiff's attorney Roberta Kaplan asked in the deposition. "No," Trump responded.
Kaplan, in the deposition, also read Trump's defamatory response to the article and asked, "Do you stand by the statement?" Trump responded, "Yes."
The jury also heard Trump in the deposition affirm that he stood by a June 24, 2019, statement in which he said Carroll was "not my type."
"You meant she was not your type, physically right?" Kaplan asked. "Physically, she's not my type," Trump responded. "The only difference between me and other people is that I'm honest."
The jury also saw the excerpt of the deposition in which Trump was handed an old black-and-white photo of him, his first wife Ivana, Carroll, and her then-husband John Johnson, and temporarily mistook Carroll for his second wife Marla Maples.
After the confusion, Kaplan, in the deposition, asked Trump if the three women he married were his type, and Trump answered, "Yeah."
Trump, in the deposition, also conceded that he had no information about Carroll's political party or evidence that she was pursuing a political agenda.
The jury also saw an excerpt of a videotaped deposition Trump gave in April 2023 as part of Trump's separate civil fraud lawsuit in which Trump boasted about his wealth, and estimated that the value of his Mar-a-Lago resort is $1.5 billion -- possibly meant to show the jury that Trump can afford a large damage award.
Carroll is a 'truth teller,' former editor says
E. Jean Carroll was a "beloved" columnist at Elle magazine, her former editor testified as the final witness in Carroll's case.
"She was beloved by the readers," Roberta Myers testified. "I would say she was the most prominent columnist that we had. I thought of her column as a destination. People would often pick up the magazine and go to her column first."
"She's a truth-teller," Myers said of Carroll.
On cross-examination, defense attorney Alina Habba established that Myers is a registered Democrat who did not vote for Trump in either 2016 or 2020.
When Habba asked whether Myers planned to vote for Trump in 2024, Myers answered, "I don't think I have to say what I plan to do."
Trump watched Myers' testimony from his seat at the defense table.
Elle magazine editor takes the stand
After a late start, today's proceedings are underway in former President Trump's defamation damages trial.
Roberta Myers, the former editor-in-chief of Elle magazine, where E. Jean Carroll was an advice columnist, has taken the stand to testify for Carroll.
Trump is seated at the defense table with his attorneys.
Carroll says she's paid 'as dearly as is possible to pay'
"I've paid just about as dearly as is possible to pay," E. Jean Carroll testified about her life after then-President Trump fiercely denied her rape claim in a series of defamatory statements in 2019.
When New York magazine, on June 21, 2019, published an excerpt of Carroll's book that included her allegation that Trump raped her in a department store dressing room, she testified that she expected him to respond.
"I expected him to deny it but to say it was consensual, which it was not, but that's what I expected him to say," Carroll testified.
"Is that what he did?" her attorney Roberta Kaplan asked. "No," Carroll answered.
According to a reporter's Tweet from 5:17 p.m. on June 21, 2019, which was shown in court, Trump responded to the allegation by saying, "I've never met this person in my life."
"That is a lie," Carroll said. "He said I made up an accusation to sell a book. That is a lie. He said I made up the accusation for publicity's sake. That is a lie. He said my accusation damaged the real victims of sexual assault. That is a lie."
Carroll read additional statements by Trump reacting to her allegation.
"He said people like me, who make false accusations, are very dangerous, in very dangerous territory, that I shouldn't have done it for the sake of publicity. That is also a lie," Carroll said.