Writer and former advice columnist, E. Jean Carroll was awarded a staggering $83.3m by a New York City jury on Friday in her defamation lawsuit against former US president, Donald Trump.
The jury decided that Donald Trump should pay Carroll $18.3m in compensatory damages and another $65m in punitive damages for harming her reputation and causing her emotional distress with his false and malicious statements in 2019.
Carroll had accused Trump of raping her in a dressing room of a high-end department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s. An excerpt from her book, What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal, was published by New York magazine in June 2019.
Trump denied the allegation, calling Carroll a liar, a political operative, and a nobody. He also announced that she was not his type and that he had never met her. A photograph showing them together at a party in 1987 has been made available, however.
The E Jean Carroll Lawsuit
Carroll sued Trump for defamation in November 2019. Her claim was that he had smeared her character and damaged her career. She also filed a separate lawsuit in January 2022, alleging that Trump had sexually assaulted her and defamed her again after he left office.
The sexual assault lawsuit went to trial first. In June 2022, a jury found Trump guilty and ordered him to pay Carroll $5m in damages. The judge in both cases, senior judge Lewis A. Kaplan, ruled that the jury’s verdict in the first trial would be accepted as fact in the second trial. It meant that Trump could not challenge Carroll’s rape claim again.
The second trial focused on the extent of the harm and damage that Trump’s defamatory statements had caused to Carroll’s reputation. It also focused on the amount of money that would deter him from repeating such statements in the future.
Carroll testified that Trump’s lies had ruined her reputation professionally as a journalist and an author, and they had made her feel humiliated, violated, and terrified. She said that she had received death threats, lost work opportunities, and suffered from depression and anxiety. “I’m here because Donald Trump assaulted me, and when I wrote about it, he said it never happened,” Carroll said in her testimony. “He lied, and it shattered my reputation. I expected him to deny it, but to say it was consensual, when it was not. But that’s what I expected him to say.”
“The thing that really got me about this was, from the White House, he asked if anyone had any information about me, and if they did, to please come forward as soon as possible, because he wanted the world to know what’s really going on – and that people like me should pay dearly,” she added.
The Former US President Denounces Verdict, Vows To Appeal
Trump, who did not show up at all for the first trial, appeared in court for the second trial. However, his behaviour was erratic and disruptive. He was seen interrupting the proceedings several times, shouting at the judge and the lawyers, and posting inflammatory messages on his social media platform, Truth Social.
After the jury announced its verdict, Trump denounced it as “absolutely ridiculous” and vowed to appeal. “I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party,” he wrote.
“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!”, he added.
Carroll, however, said that she was “overjoyed” and “grateful” for the jury’s decision, and that she hoped it would inspire other survivors of sexual violence to speak out and seek justice.
Bengali