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, following decision, hugs her attorneys
After the decision was announced, E. Jean Carroll and her lawyers locked hands as they stood for the jury to exit, and multiple jurors appeared to nod toward them as they left the courtroom for the final time.
Carroll and her lawyers immediately broke into a group hug as soon as Kaplan dismissed the parties.
Trump's defense team promptly exited the courtroom once they were dismissed, and his attorney Alina Habba thanked the court's staff for their service.
Shortly after Judge Kaplan's deputy read the verdict, the judge thanked the jury for their service and offered them a suggestion about interacting with the media.
"My advice to you is that you never disclose that you were on this jury, and I won't say anything more about it," Kaplan told the jury.
Trump says he plans to appeal
Writing on his social media platform, former President Trump called the $83 million decision "Absolutely ridiculous!" and said he will appeal.
The former president was not in the courtroom when the decision was announced.
Jury awards Carroll $83.3 million in damages
Former President Donald Trump must pay writer E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million for defaming her in 2019 after she accused him of sexually assaulting her in a department store in the 1990s.
The jury determined that Trump must pay $18.3 million in compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive damages.
Carroll had sought at least $12 million for reputation repair, plus additional compensatory and punitive damages.
A separate jury last year found Trump liable for sexually assaulting then defaming Carroll, awarding her $5 million in damages.
The current jury of nine New Yorkers -- including a former schoolteacher, a transit worker, and a property manager -- rendered a verdict after deliberating for just under three hours.
Jury reaches verdict
The jury in former President Donald Trump's defamation damages case has reached a verdict.
The judge has called the parties back into the courtroom to hear the verdict read.
The jury will announce whether they have found E. Jean Carroll suffered damages as a result of Trump's statements, and, if so, how much they award Carroll in both compensatory and punitive damages.
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.