Donald Trump during a campaign fundraiser in Columbia, South Carolina May 8, 2023 Portal/Sam Wolfe
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Former United States President Donald Trump was sentenced this Friday by a jury to pay $83.3 million in compensation to journalist E. Jean Carroll, who accused the politician of destroying her reputation, by denying raping her in an episode that occurred almost three times decades ago.
The jury of seven men and two women took less than three hours to reach their verdict. The compensation far exceeded Carroll's $10 million minimum. The jury decided she should receive $18.3 million in compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive damages.
Carroll, 80, sued Trump in November 2019 after he denied five months earlier that he raped her in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the mid1990s.
Trump, 77, said he had never heard of her and that the author made up the story to boost sales of her memoir. His lawyers said Carroll just wanted fame.
Another jury had already sentenced Trump in May 2023 to pay $5 million in damages to Carroll based on a similar rejection in October 2022, ruling that he had both defamed and sexually abused the journalist. Trump is appealing the decision.
In the current trial, she argued that Trump had ruined her reputation as a respected journalist and that punitive damages were appropriate to prevent the former president from repeating his denials.
District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over both trials, said the previous verdict was binding on the second trial, meaning the only question for jurors was how much Trump should pay.
Trump, a Republican, used Carroll's case and other legal battles he is facing to boost his campaign for the White House in the November election, in which he is expected to face Democrat Joe Biden, the current president who defeated him defeated in 2020.
Trump faces 91 criminal charges in four indictments, including two counts of allegedly illegally attempting to overturn his 2020 election defeat. He pleaded not guilty to all counts, saying he was a victim of politically motivated lies and an outofcontrol justice system.
During the trial, Trump was heard muttering to the court that the case was a “scam” and a “witch hunt” and that he still didn't know who Carroll was, prompting the judge to admonish him twice. to stay calm.
Carroll's lawyer Roberta Kaplan who is not related to the judge argued that Trump acted as if he was above the law: “This trial is designed to stop him once and for all. “It’s time to make him pay for it,” he said.
Trump's lawyer Alina Habba countered that New York Magazine's publication of excerpts from Carroll's memoirs led to the attacks on Carroll, not Trump's denial.
Trump left the courtroom during Roberta Kaplan's closing argument but returned when Habba, his lawyer, spoke.
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