Trump ordered to pay $83m in damages in defamation trial
Former President Donald Trump is on trial this week in New York City to determine whether he will have to pay former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll additional damages 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.
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.
Trump’s attorney calls jury ‘ridiculous’
Addressing the media outside the courthouse, Trump attorney Alina Habba slammed the $83 million verdict, dismissing the jury as “ridiculous” and repeating Trump’s vow to immediately appeal.
“We will immediately appeal. We will set aside that ridiculous jury,” Habba said. “I assure you — we didn’t win today, but we will win.”
Habba repeated her grievances with the orders from the judge, who instructed the defense that, based on the ruling in Trump’s previous trial, they could not dispute that Trump assaulted Carroll and later defamed her when he denied it.
“You are not allowed to be stripped of every defense you have,” Habba said.
Habba said she was “so proud” to represent Trump, and repeated his familiar claim that he is being targeted for political purposes.
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.
Trump attacks Carroll, judge on social media
Former President Trump has made a post to his social media account attacking E. Jean Carroll and Judge Lewis Kaplan as proceedings continue in his damages defamations trial.
Trump, who left the courtroom during the plaintiff’s closing statements but returned for the defense closings, repeated his claim in the post that he had never met Carroll, and accused her and the judge of having political motives.
‘He is not the victim,’ Carroll’s attorney says of Trump
In a brief rebuttal, Carroll’s attorney Shawn Crowley accused Donald Trump’s defense of advancing an antiquated argument that amounted to victim-shaming.
Reminding the jury Trump has already been found liable for assaulting and defaming Carroll, Crowley said that in the defense’s eyes, “even though he did those things, even though Donald Trump does whatever he wants, any harm Ms. Carroll suffered is her fault for speaking out.”
Crowley conceded more people know who Carroll is now, but she said that the idea that positive attention cancels out the harm Trump caused is “nonsense,” and she asked the jury to reject the defense argument that Carroll is somehow better off.
“Ms. Carroll did not ask to be called a liar, she did not ask for death threats,” Crowley said. “She did not ask to be accused of lying, of making up a story for money.”
Defending Carroll’s quirky personality and her conflicting testimony about her feelings, Crowley argued that Carroll should not have to prove she was a broken wreck of a person at all times, in order to collect damages.
“You can be wrecked inside and also feel moments of triumph. You can be sad and also feel proud when people stand beside you,” Crowley said.
Crowley said Trump’s defense amounted to “she asked for it,” and asked the jury, “Are we really still doing that? Have we really not moved past that naïve idea?”
“He wants you to hold Ms. Carroll accountable for his actions,” Crowley said of Trump. “He is not the victim.”
Defense says Carroll provided no ‘evidence of reputational harm’
Defense attorney Alina Habba, delivering her closing argument, showed the jury a series of caustic tweets to make the case that E. Jean Carroll failed to prove she suffered the kind of reputational harm she said Donald Trump caused.
“As you can see, the total number of views of all these tweets that they feel best represents their case is a total of 143 views,” Habba said. “That’s not evidence of reputational harm.”
Habba accused Carroll of enjoying the attention her accusation has created. “Ms. Carroll loves her new reputation and her life. My client is not enjoying this,” she said.
“Let’s not forget Ms. Carroll is making more money now than she was in June 2019,” Habba said.
Habba said that in 2019, Carroll had hit “financial and social rock bottom” and decided to climb her way back to a lavish lifestyle with celebrity friends by making a public accusation against Trump.
“She made an allegation in the most public form by design,” Habba said, adding that Trump had repeatedly made his position clear.
That drew an objection from the plaintiffs that was sustained by the judge, since Trump is not allowed to cause the jury to doubt an earlier verdict that held Trump liable for sexual assaulting and defaming Carroll.
“It is established,” Judge Kaplan said.
“It is established by a jury,” Habba added.
“It is established, and you will not quarrel with me,” the judge said.
When Habba resumed, she mocked the reputational repair expert who testified that rehabilitating Carroll would cost as much as $12 million — particularly the idea that conservative commentators Joe Rogan and Candace Owens should be paid to help Ms. Carroll repair her reputation.
“What planet are we living on?” Habba said.
The plaintiff’s rebuttal will follow the defense’s closing.
Carroll ‘failed to show’ she deserves damages, defense says
Trump attorney Alina Habba, in her closing argument, questioned the sincerity of E. Jean Carroll’s claims of emotional and professional harm and accused her of trying to pin the comments of Twitter trolls on a president of the United States.
“Ms. Carroll has failed to show she is entitled to any damages at all,” Habba said.
Habba attempted to suggest that Donald Trump could not defend himself and that Carroll had paid for a lawyer for her friend Carol Martin, who testified as a hostile witness for the defense — but Carroll’s attorneys objected and Judge Lewis Kaplan sustained the objection.
“If you violate my instructions again, Ms. Habba, there could be consequences,” the judge warned.
Habba said that Carroll failed to prove causation, slowly annunciating the word loudly into the microphone.
“They have to prove a direct causal connection between the harm they say she suffered and [Trump’s] statements,” Habba said, arguing that there were independent critics messaging Carroll before Trump issued his defamatory statements denying Carroll’s June 2019 sexual assault allegation.
“This is the beauty and dangers of free speech in America. Everyone is entitled to their opinion,” Habba said, asserting that Trump has no more control over the thoughts and feelings of social media users “than he does the weather.”
“It is Ms. Carroll’s burden, not President Trump’s, to prove his statements are the cause of any harm, and clearly she has failed to meet that burden,” Habba argued.
She also questioned the legitimacy of the harm Carroll claims to have suffered. “Who is E. Jean?” Habba asked, telling the jury there are two versions, and asserting that the true E. Jean Carroll is a narcissist out for fame and attention, “and the one who comes to court to get money from my client.”
Habba also chided Carroll for deleting messages containing death threats — which Carroll said she did because they were painful to see — and for never calling the police.
“She deleted her own evidence,” Habba said. “She has to give them to you to support their claim for damages, but they’re not here and that’s a fact.”
As Trump looked on, hunched forward, hands folded on the table, Habba quoted his brief testimony saying he did not intend to hurt Carroll.
“We do not know the true identities of the people who sent the messages to Ms. Carroll,” Habba said. “President Trump should not have to pay for their threats. He does not condone them. He did not direct them. All he did was tell his truth.”
Carroll’s attorney says Trump was ‘trying to ruin her’
Prior to Donald Trump’s dramatic and unexpected exit, E. Jean Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan had been telling the jury, in her closing statement, that Trump responded to Carroll’s 2019 sexual assault claim “by trying to ruin her,” thereby triggering “a tsunami of attacks” against her.
Trump shook his head, silently disagreeing, as the attorney reminded the jury that a prior trial found Trump sexually assaulted Carroll and, when she later accused him, unleashed “vicious attacks against her.”
“This case is about how to compensate Ms. Carroll for the harm Donald Trump’s original statements in June 2019 caused her,” she said. “This case is also about punishing Donald Trump for what he has done and for what he continues to do. It’s about punishing him for the malicious nature of his original attacks in 2019, and considering his continued attacks. This trial is about getting him to stop once and for all.”
The attorney took aim at the defense’s argument that Trump’s statements made Carroll more famous, enlarged her following, and enabled new career opportunities.
“Being known as a liar and whack job is different than being known as a respected advice columnist,” she said.
Trump walks out during plaintiff’s closing statement
Former President Trump walked out of the courtroom as Carroll’s attorney was delivering her closing statement.
Judge Lewis Kaplan interrupted.
“The record will reflect that Mr. Trump just rose and walked out of the courtroom,” the judge said.
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