Jurors reached a verdict Friday after around three hours of deliberation in writer E. Jean Carroll’s trial against former President Donald Trump, from whom she sought millions of dollars in damages for defamation.
The jury awarded Carroll a whopping $83.3 million, The Associated Press reported. That breaks down to $7.3 million in emotional damages, $11 million in reputation-related damages and $65 million in punitive damages.
Trump was not in the courtroom when the verdict was read.
Over the course of the trial, however, Trump’s presence led to some dramatic scenes — including earlier on Friday when the former president stormed out during Carroll’s attorney’s closing arguments.
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan interrupted the proceedings to note for the court record that Trump had abruptly walked out. He had also arrived late.
Kaplan and Trump’s attorneys, particularly Alina Habba, clashed throughout the trial, up until the jurors left to begin their deliberations. The judge was moved to threaten Habba with “time in lockup” during a tense procedural exchange before the jury came in, and reportedly reiterated that threat during closing arguments as jurors looked on.
Carroll, a longtime advice columnist, maintains that Trump raped her in a dressing room at Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman department store in 1996. She wrote about her experience in a book that was excerpted in New York Magazine in 2019, prompting Trump to launch his campaign of denial.
His personal attacks — Trump has called Carroll a “whack job” and a “fraud” — inspired her to sue for defamation.
Writing on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump called the verdict “absolutely ridiculous” and pledged to appeal.
“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!” wrote the former president.
Carroll did not speak to the media scrum outside the courthouse, although she…
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