Trump vows to appeal $83.3M ruling

By: Aysha Bagchi
USA Today

..... Former President Donald Trump must pay advice columnist E Jean Carroll a stunning $83.3 million for defaming her in 2019, when he denied her allegations of sexual assault and said "people should pay dearly for such false accusations," a federal civil jury ruled Friday. [01/26/2024]
..... Carroll's lawyers had asked the anonymous nine-person jury for heavy damages against the former president, and the panel didn't disappoint: Carroll was awarded $18.3 million in compensatory damages, and $65 million in punitive damages. The jury deliberated for just three hours after a trial spanning several days of testimony and arguments.
..... Trump, who left the Manhattan courtroom before the verdict was read, fumed on social media and vowed to appeal the jury's decision.
..... "Absolutely ridiculous! I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party," he wrote on Truth Social. "Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon."
..... Carroll smiled as the verdict was announced. "this is a great victory for every woman who stands up when she's been knocked down, and a huge defeat for every bully who has tired to keep a woman down," she aid in a statement Friday [01/26/2024] night.
..... Friday's [01/26/2024] defamation damages are in addition to the $5 million Trump already was told he will have to pay Carroll after a jury found last May [2023] that he had sexually abused and then defamed the bestselling author in 2022, when he called her accusation a "con job."
..... The new verdict addresses Trump's initial denials, in 2019, after Carroll first went public with allegations that Trump had raped her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1900s.
..... Judge Lewis Kaplan told the jurors seven men and two women, that they were free to speak publicly but could not reveal the identity of another juror. "My advice to you," he said, "is that you never disclose that you were on this jury, and I won't say anything more about it."
..... Carroll's lawyer argued that Trump unleashed his supporters on her through his lengthy statements as president denying her accusation and suggesting she made it up to sell books. They showed the jury a series of messages that were presented as a sampling of the attacks Carroll had faced.
..... One attacker told Carroll to "stick a gun in your mouth and pull the trigger and send yourself it HELL." Another told her that "penalty for lying about rape should be execution by hanging or firing squad."
..... When Carroll first read a death threat from one of Trump's followers, she physically ducked, she testified. "I through i was gonna get shot," she said.
..... Trump skipped the first defamation trial, but this time he attended many of the proceedings. he briefly testified Thursday [01/25/2024] though he was constrained by Judge Kaplan, who had previously ruled that, in light of the prior verdict, Trump could not deny assaulting Carroll while on the witness stand.
..... When Trump described Carroll's accusations as "totally false," the judge struck that part of the testimony.
..... Trump attorney Alina Habba had portrayed Carroll as an attention-seeker who could not prove that the threats she received were the result of Trump's denials, rather than her own accusation. "This is about some people in their mothers' basements who will always be mean on social media," she told the jurors Friday. [01/26/2024]

'The law applies to everyone'

..... In a statement on Friday, [01/26/2024] Carroll attorney Roberta Kaplan said the verdict "proves that the law applies to everyone in our country, even the rich, even the famous, even former presidents."
..... "Standing up to a bully takes courage and bravery: it takes someone like E. jean Carroll," she said.
.... Habba, who clashed repeatedly with the judge during the trial - to the point that she was threatened with a contempt citation and jail time - said Trump would "immediately appeal" the verdict. "We were stripped of every defense, every single defense before we walked in there and I am proud to stand with President Trump because he showed up, he stood up, he took the stand and he faced this judge," Habba told reporters outside the courthouse.
..... Earlier on Friday, [01/26/2024] Kaplan, had asked the jury for a minimum of $24 million in compensatory damages, adding that Trump should face unspecified - but hefty - punitive damages to punish and deter him.
..... "He does care about money," she said. "How much will it take to make him stop?"
..... From 11 PM. Thursday [01/25/2024] int Friday [01/26/2024] afternoon, Trump made 17 posts or shares to Truth Social, totaling nearly 750 words, decrying the Carroll case, and attacking her veracity and the judge's impartiality."
..... The $18.3 million in compensatory damages awarded by the jury included $11 million for Carroll to pay for a public relations campaign to restore her reputation, and $7.3 million for pain and suffering.

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