Donald Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll US$83.3 million in defamation case, jury finds
- The seven-man, two-woman panel took less than 3 hours to agree on the sum, which far exceeded the minimum US$10 million Carroll had been seeking
- The writer says that by denying he raped her nearly 30 years ago, the ex-US president had ‘shattered’ her reputation as a respected journalist
Donald Trump was handed a stinging defeat on Friday by a Manhattan jury that ordered him to pay US$83.3 million to the writer E. Jean Carroll, who said he destroyed her reputation as a trustworthy journalist by denying he raped her nearly three decades ago.
Jurors ordered the former US president to pay US$18.3 million in compensatory damages and US$65 million in punitive damages.
The seven-man, two-woman jury, whose members were kept anonymous, took less than three hours to reach a verdict after a five-day trial in Manhattan federal court. The sum the jury ordered Trump to pay far exceeded the minimum US$10 million that Carroll had sought in the case.
Carroll’s case has become an issue in Trump’s campaign to retake the White House in the November election. Trump is the front runner for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the November US election. Biden beat Trump in 2020.
Trump attended most of the trial, but was not in the courtroom to hear the verdict. He said in a social media post that he will appeal.