Jury Orders Trump to Pay Carroll $83.3 Million for Defamation

After insulting Carroll for years, a jury orders Trump to pay her $83.3 million.

A Manhattan jury on Friday, January 26, 2024, ordered former President Donald J. Trump to pay writer E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million for defaming her in 2019 after she accused him of rape dating back decades. Trump persisted in her attacks on social media, at press conferences, and even during the trial.

According to Ms. Carroll’s attorneys, Mr. Trump would not be able to continue attacking her without a sizable award. In response, the jury awarded Ms. Carroll $65 million in punitive damages after less than three hours of deliberation, concluding that Mr. Trump had acted maliciously. He joked about Ms. Carroll on his Truth Social page more than forty times in one day.

Just after 4:30 p.m. On Friday, January 26, 2024, Lewis A. Kaplan, the judge, summoned the nine-member jury and told the Attorneys, “We will have no outbursts,” after Mr. Trump had already left the courtroom for the day.

The jury gave Ms. Carroll $18.3 million in compensatory damages for her suffering in addition to the $65 million. As the dollar estimates were read aloud, Mr. Trump’s attorneys sagged in their chairs. After the jury was dismissed, 80-year-old Ms. Carroll embraced her attorneys. Shortly after, she and her legal team exited the courthouse together, grinning at the cameras.

In a statement, Ms. Carroll thanked her attorneys profusely and stated, “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 tried to keep a woman down.”

In a Truth Social post, Mr. Trump, who had earlier left the courthouse during the closing argument made by Ms. Carroll’s Attorney declared the decision to be “absolutely ridiculous.”