NEW YORK -- A jury awarded US$83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll on Friday in a stinging and expensive rebuke to former president Donald Trump for his continued social media attacks against the longtime advice columnist over her claims that he sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store.
The award, coupled with a US$5 million sexual assault and defamation verdict last year from another jury in a case brought by Carroll, raised to US$88.3 million what Trump must pay her. Protesting vigorously, he said he would appeal.
Carroll, 80, clutched her lawyers' hands and smiled as the seven-man, two-woman anonymous jury delivered its verdict. Minutes later, she shared a weepy three-way hug with her attorneys.
She declined comment as she left the Manhattan federal courthouse, but issued a statement later through a publicist, saying, "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."
Trump had attended the trial earlier in the day, but stormed out of the courtroom during closing arguments by Carroll's attorney. He returned for his own attorney's closing argument and for a portion of the deliberations, but left the courthouse a half hour before the verdict was read.
"Absolutely ridiculous!" he said in a statement shortly afterward. "Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon."
His attorney, Alina Habba, said the verdict resulted because Trump's opponents were suing "in states where they know they will get juries like this."
"It will not deter us. We will keep fighting. And, I assure you, we didn't win today, but we will win," she said.
The trial reached its conclusion as Trump marches toward winning the Republican presidential nomination a third consecutive time. He has sought to turn his various trials and legal vulnerabilities into an advantage, portraying them as evidence of a weaponized political system.
Though there's no evidence that President Joe Biden or anyone in the White House has influenced any of the legal cases against him, Trump's line of argument has resonated with his most loyal supporters, who view the proceedings with skepticism.
Nikki Haley, his last major rival in the Republican primaries, said on social media Friday that the verdict meant that people were "talking about US$83 million in damages" rather than fixing the border or inflation.
With the Carroll civil case behind him, Trump still faces 91 criminal charges in four indictments accusing him of trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election, mishandling classified documents and arranging payoffs to a porn star.
It was the second time in nine months that a civil jury returned a verdict related to Carroll's claim that a flirtatious, chance encounter with Trump in 1996 at Bergdorf Goodman's Fifth Avenue store ended violently. She said Trump slammed her against a dressing room wall, pulled down her tights and forced himself on her.
In May, a different jury awarded Carroll US$5 million. It found Trump not liable for rape, but responsible for sexually abusing Carroll and then defaming her by claiming she made it up. He is appealing that award, too.
Trump is also awaiting a verdict in a New York civil fraud trial, where state lawyers are seeking the return of US$370 million in what they say were ill-gotten gains from loans and deals made using financial statements that exaggerated his wealth.
As for Trump's ability to pay, he reported having about US$294 million in cash or cash equivalents on his most recent annual financial statement, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021. Testifying at his civil fraud trial last November, Trump boasted, "I have very little debt, and I have a lot of cash."
Trump skipped the first Carroll trial. He later expressed regret for not attending and insisted on testifying in the second trial, though the judge limited what he could say, ruling he had missed his chance to argue that he didn't attack Carroll. He spent only a few minutes on the witness stand Thursday, during which he denied assaulting Carroll, then left court grumbling "this is not America."
This new jury was only asked how much Trump, 77, should pay Carroll for two statements he made as president when he answered reporters' questions after excerpts of Carroll's memoir were published in a magazine -- damages that couldn't be decided earlier because of legal appeals. Jurors were not asked to re-decide the issue of whether the sex attack actually happened.
In her closing argument Friday, Carroll attorney Roberta Kaplan requested US$24 million in compensatory damages and "an unusually high punitive award." The jury awarded US$18.3 million in compensatory damages and another US$65 million in punitive damages -- meant to deter future behavior.
Kaplan urged jurors to punish Trump enough that he would stop a steady stream of public statements smearing Carroll as a liar and a "whack job."
She noted that Trump had boasted of at least US$14 billion in assets and that his brand alone is worth US$10 billion.
"Donald Trump is prepared to use his wealth and power to defame people whenever he wants," she said. "He ignored the last verdict as if it had never happened."
Kaplan said he didn't show up at last year's trial when a jury determined he had sexually assaulted and defamed Carroll, but "he made sure" to attend most of this year's trial because it focused solely on damages.
"While Donald Trump may not care about the law, while he certainly doesn't care about the truth, he does care about money," the lawyer said.
Big punitive damages, she told jurors, was the only way "to give Ms. Carroll a chance at a normal life again where she is not regularly bullied and humiliated by one of the most powerful men on the planet."
Trump shook his head vigorously as Kaplan spoke early in her summation, then suddenly stood and walked out, taking Secret Service agents with him. His exit came only minutes after the judge, without the jury present, threatened to send his attorney to jail for continuing to talk when he told her she was finished.
"You are on the verge of spending some time in the lockup. Now sit down," the judge told Habba, who immediately complied.
Carroll testified early in the trial that Trump's public statements had led to death threats.
"He shattered my reputation," she said. "I am here to get my reputation back and to stop him from telling lies about me."
She said she'd had an electronic fence installed around the cabin in upstate New York where she lives, warned neighbors of the threats and bought bullets for a gun she keeps by her bed.
"Previously, I was known simply as a journalist and had a column, and now I'm known as the liar, the fraud, and the whack job," Carroll testified.
Trump's lawyer, Habba, told jurors that Carroll had been enriched by her accusations against Trump and achieved fame she had craved. She said no damages were warranted after Trump's lawyers had established that Carroll didn't suffer emotionally from Trump's statements and "she certainly hasn't suffered professionally."
To support Carroll's request for millions in damages, Northwestern University sociologist Ashlee Humphreys had testified that Trump's 2019 statements had caused between US$7.2 million and US$12.1 million in harm to Carroll's reputation.
When Trump finally testified, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan gave him little room to maneuver after saying Trump was not permitted to revive issues settled in the first trial.
"It is a very well-established legal principle in this country that prevents do-overs by disappointed litigants," said Kaplan, who is unrelated to Roberta Kaplan.
"He lost it and he is bound. And the jury will be instructed that, regardless of what he says in court here today, he did it, as far as they're concerned. That is the law," Kaplan said shortly before Trump testified.
After he swore to tell the truth, Trump was asked if he stood by a deposition in which he called Carroll a "liar" and a "whack job." He answered: "100 per cent. Yes."
Asked if he denied the allegation because Carroll made an accusation, he responded: "That's exactly right. She said something, I consider it a false accusation." Asked if he ever instructed anyone to hurt Carroll, he said: "No. I just wanted to defend myself, my family, and frankly, the presidency."
The judge ordered the jury to disregard the "false accusation" comment and everything Trump said after "No" to the last question.
Earlier in the trial, Trump tested the judge's tolerance. When he complained to his lawyers about a "witch hunt" and a "con job" within earshot of jurors, Kaplan threatened to eject him from the courtroom if it happened again. "I would love it," Trump said. Later that day, Trump told a news conference Kaplan was a "nasty judge."
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Associated Press writers Michelle Price, Michael R. Sisak and Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
