On January 26, 2024, the jury in the second lawsuit by E. Jean Carroll against former President Donald Trump rendered a verdict in which it awarded Carroll $83.3 million.
The verdict came after a five day trial on damages. The jury deliberated for three hours before rendering its verdict.
The jury awarded $7.3 million in damages for emotional harm, $11 million in compensatory damages for reputational harm, and $65 million in punitive damages
As discussed in a prior post on the Carroll trial, the trial was limited to damages to be awarded on account of Trump’s defamation of Carroll in 2019 while serving as President after she publicly alleged that he had sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room.
In the previous trial, which resulted in a jury verdict finding Trump liability for sexual abuse and defaming Carroll, and awarding Carroll a $5 million judgment, Trump declined to attend the proceedings and chose not to testify in his defense.
This time Trump selectively attended the trial and testified in his defense for less than five minutes.
As the jury was instructed that another jury had already found that the sexual abuse took place and that Trump’s 2022 statements were defamatory, the only question to be determined was what measure of damages that should be awarded to compensate Carroll and to dissuade Trump from persisting in his defamation of her.
Notably, Trump has continued to describe the proceedings as a “witch hunt”, as being politically motivated, and that he is the victim on social media and in multiple press conferences before and during the trial.
Trump fled the courtroom during closing arguments by Carrolls’ counsel and only returned when his counsel made her closing remarks.
Storming out of closing argument like a petulant child, being threatened with expulsion from the courtroom during testimony due to his loud complaining to his counsel, and his continued denigration of Carroll likely contributed to the jury’s perception that only a significant financial penalty might discourage such conduct.
The magnitude of the damages also reflects that the defamatory statements were made while Trump was President, just that he had the loudest platform and broadest audience for his message – the entire world.
Trump may have fared better if he had skipped the proceedings.