By Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen for Reuters
Donald Trump, 77, claimed that he had never heard of E Jean Carroll, and that she made up her story to boost sales of her memoir. Photo: AFP
Donald Trump was handed a stinging defeat on Friday by a Manhattan jury that ordered him to pay $83.3 million (NZ$ 137m) 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 $18.3m in compensatory damages and $65m 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 $10m (NZ$16m) 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 frontrunner 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.
Carroll, 80, did not answer questions as she left the courthouse, with her arms around two of her lawyers.
She sued Trump in November 2019 over his denials five months earlier that he had raped her in the mid-1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan.
Trump, 77, claimed that he had never heard of Carroll, and that she made up her story to boost sales of her memoir.
His lawyers said Carroll was hungry for fame and enjoyed the attention from supporters for speaking out against her nemesis.
Another jury last May ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5m over a similar October 2022 denial, finding that he had defamed and sexually abused Carroll. Trump is appealing that decision.
In the current trial, Carroll said Trump "shattered" her reputation as a respected journalist who told the truth.
She also said punitive damages were appropriate, in part to keep Trump from repeating his denials.
Former magazine columnist E Jean Carroll arrives at Manhattan federal court in New York for the second defamation trial against former US President and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump. Photo: AFP / Charly Triballeau
Trump's campaign
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw both trials, said the earlier verdict was binding for the second trial, meaning the only issue for jurors was how much Trump should pay.
Trump, a Republican, has used Carroll's case and his other legal travails to bolster his campaign to retake the White House in the November election in a likely showdown against Democrat Joe Biden, who beat him in 2020.
Trump faces 91 felony counts in four criminal indictments, including two cases accusing him of trying to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss. He has pleaded not guilty in all of the cases, and has portrayed himself as the victim of politically motivated lies and an out-of-control judicial system.
During the Carroll trial, Trump was heard muttering in court that the case was a "con job" and "witch hunt" and that he still did not know who Carroll was, prompting the judge to twice admonish him to keep quiet.
Trump stalked out of the courtroom during the closing argument on Friday by Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, but returned for his own lawyer's argument.
Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, had argued that Trump acted as though he wasn't bound by the law.
"This trial is about getting him to stop, once and for all," she added. "Now is the time to make him pay for it dearly."
'Cocoon of love'
Trump's lawyer Alina Habba countered that it was the publication of excerpts from Carroll's memoir in New York magazine that triggered the attacks, not Trump's denials that began five hours later.
She also argued that Carroll enjoyed her newfound fame and was "happier than ever," citing her testimony that she had entered a "cocoon of love" from her supporters.
A Northwestern University damages expert who testified on Carroll's behalf estimated the reputational harm from Trump's statements was $7.3m to $12.1m.
On Thursday, Trump spent only four minutes defending himself on the witness stand after Judge Kaplan forbade him and his lawyers from revisiting issues that the first trial had settled.
Trump was allowed to confirm his October 2022 deposition testimony, which jurors had been shown, in which he called Carroll's claims a "hoax" and said she was "mentally sick."
Carroll wrote the "Ask E. Jean" column for Elle from 1993 to 2019, and often appeared on such programmes as NBC's Today and ABC's Good Morning America. She said those appearances dried up because of Trump.
This story was first published by Reuters.