A jury has ordered former President Donald Trump to pay E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million in her defamation case against him.
The breakdown is $18.3 million in compensatory damages, and $65 million in punitive damages.
Carroll accused Trump of raping her in 1996 at the Bergdorf Goodman across from Trump Tower.
The jury had to determine how much Trump owed Carroll since he “was already found liable for sexually abusing Carroll, lying about it and knowing that he was lying when he denied her allegations.”
A jury in May already awarded $5 million to Carroll after they “found he sexually assaulted her and then defamed her.”
Lawyers claimed Trump defamed Carroll with his “mean tweets” because online trolls went after her as well:
[Trump lawyer Alina] Habba claimed that Trump shouldn’t be held responsible for the hateful messages and death threats that Carroll received after going public with sexual assault allegations against Trump.”Ladies and gentlemen, this isn’t about President Trump and E. Jean Carroll, this is about some people in their mothers’ basements who will always be mean on social media, you can’t stop that,” the firebrand lawyer told jurors as she finished her closing arguments.Carroll’s lawyers argued that Trump “unleashed his followers” on the “Ask E. Jean” writer, but Habba said Trump was only defending himself when he said he didn’t know Carroll and claimed she wasn’t his type when he was in office in June 2019.
Trump vows to appeal.
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