Jury decides Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll US$83.3 million for defamation

(CNN) –– Former President Donald Trump author and columnist E. Jean Carroll must pay US$83.3 million in damages for public statements made in 2019, when he defamed her and denied the rape allegations she made against him. A federal jury in Manhattan.

The staggering amount represents the sharpest legal setback yet against the former president, who has been embroiled in multiple criminal and civil cases while campaigning for the White House.

According to the jury’s decision, Trump will have to pay Carroll US$18.3 million in damages: US$11 million to finance a campaign to repair his reputation and US$7.3 million for emotional damages he has caused from public statements since 2019. In addition, the former jury concluded that Carroll should have been awarded $65 million in punitive damages for acting maliciously in making statements about him.

In total, Carroll received more than eight times the money he sought in his initial lawsuit. The columnist responded by saying that the jury’s decision represented “a huge defeat for every bully who tries to oppress woman”. “This is a huge victory for every woman who stands up when knocked down, and a huge defeat for every bully who has ever tried to put a woman down,” she said in a statement.

Trump called the ruling “absolutely ridiculous” in a post on Truth Social. “I strongly disagree with both the judgments and will appeal,” he added.

Friday’s decision is the second time in less than a year that a jury has awarded Carroll millions of dollars in damages that Trump must pay for his defamatory statements. Last May, an independent federal jury in Manhattan ordered the columnist to receive a total of $5 million in damages, including nearly $3 million for defamation, after determining that Trump had sexually assaulted her and then defamed her for public statements in which he despised her and was rejected. accusations

“Our legal system is out of control and being used as a political weapon. All First Amendment rights have been taken away. This is not the United States!” Trump added in his response this Friday.

Friday’s ruling, which is certain to be appealed, comes ahead of a judge’s expected decision later this month in Trump’s civil fraud trial, a process that could threaten the former president’s business empire. There is also a hearing on whether the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination can appear on the ballot and four criminal charges awaiting trial in the US Supreme Court.

A jury was to decide how much Trump would have to pay

In his September 2023 decision, a federal judge declared that in another case involving a columnist with a former president, E. Trump is responsible for defaming Jean Carroll. So, it was up to the jury to decide how much the former president should pay.

At the time, Judge Louis Kaplan said that as early as 2024, a federal jury’s verdict in the first defamation case would apply to the second trial.

During the trial, Carroll’s lawyers asked the jury to hit Trump with a large amount in damages to actually stop his defamatory behavior.

“The law says that Donald Trump’s assets as well as his continued behavior can be considered malicious and hateful,” said Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney. “Billions of dollars are just a drop in the ocean for Trump.”

The verdict is important not only for monetary damages, but also for sending the message that a jury of ordinary citizens did not believe Trump.

When will Carol get the money?

Carroll still has a long way to go before he receives the money the jury awarded him.

Last year, a jury in the first defamation trial awarded Carroll a total of $5 million in damages, but that verdict is still under appeal.

Trump set aside $5.5 million in a court-controlled account last year as a step toward enforcing the judgment in his defamation lawsuit. However, the US Carroll will not have access to the funds until all appeals, including potentially to the Supreme Court, are resolved.

Endless appeals and delays are a familiar tactic for Trump, who is also appealing a New York state judge’s ruling that found him guilty of fraud, and is preparing to appeal a judge’s ruling in a US civil fraud case. The Attorney General of New York is coming next. week