Topline
Former President Donald Trump has been ordered to pay $83.3 million in damages to writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her after she accused him of sexual assault, a jury ruled Friday, ending years of litigation as Carroll has sought retribution for the former president’s attacks on her—and adding to the $5 million Trump has already been ordered to pay her.
Former President Donald Trump leaves his apartment building in New York on Jan. 22, to attend his … [+] defamation trial against E. Jean Carroll.
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Key Facts
After a brief deliberation Friday afternoon the jury returned a verdict saying Trump must pay $83.3 million in damages, including a $65 million award for punitive damages and $18.3 million in compensatory damages.
Carroll first sued Trump in November 2019, accusing the then-president of defamation after he denied her allegations of sexual assault, claiming Carroll wasn’t “my type.”
She filed a second lawsuit in November 2022 alleging defamation and sexual assault, which went to trial first in May 2023, with the jury ruling Trump did assault and defame Carroll—but did not rape her.
Given that Trump had already been found liable for defamation and sexual assault—the second lawsuit was based on different but substantially similar comments he made about Carroll—this trial was only to determine damages, and began Jan. 16.
What To Watch For:
Trump has already appealed the verdict against him in Carroll’s first trial, and could likely do the same with this ruling. He’ll still have to turn over the money first, however, as he did in the first case, putting the sum into a court-controlled account while the case is being appealed. The ex-president has continued to attack Carroll on social media in recent weeks and months—posting about her more than 40 times on Monday alone—though it remains to be seen if Carroll has any intention of filing another defamation claim against Trump for his more recent posts.
Forbes Valuation:
Forbes has estimated Trump’s net worth at $2.6 billion as of October, with an estimated $426 million in cash and liquid assets. It’s unclear whether he’ll be drawing from those reserves for his payout to Carroll or pay through his Save America PAC, which has been handling the lion’s share of his legal fees—though that group reported having only $3.7 million in cash on hand as of June 30.
Tangent:
This may be the first of two big payments Trump will be ordered to make in cases against him this month, as Judge Arthur Engoron is also expected to imminently issue a verdict in the ex-president’s separate civil fraud case. New York Attorney General Letitia James brought that case against Trump and his company, alleging the ex-president and his associates fraudulently misstated the value of assets on financial statements for personal gain. The case went to trial starting in October, and Engoron has said he’ll likely issue his verdict by the end of January. James is asking Engoron to force Trump and his co-defendants to pay approximately $370 million plus interest, with the majority of that to be paid by Trump and companies he controls.
Key Background:
Carroll first accused Trump in 2019 of sexually assaulting her decades earlier, writing in a piece published by New York Magazine that he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s. After Trump attacked her and her allegations, Carroll sued him for defamation in November 2019, alleging Trump’s reaction to her allegations caused her “emotional pain and suffering at the hands of the man who raped her, as well as injury to her reputation, honor and dignity.” The case got delayed in the courts for years as Carroll’s second lawsuit moved forward, as Trump unsuccessfully tried to have the first case dismissed because he was president when making the comments about her. Carroll is one of approximately two dozen women who has come forward with allegations of sexual assault or misconduct against Trump, but is the only one whose allegations have gone to trial. Former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos also sued Trump for defamation after he denied her account of sexual assault, but later dropped the lawsuit in Nov. 2021. Zervos’ attorney said she stood by her allegations of assault but “no longer wishes to litigate against the defendant.” Trump has denied all the claims against him and has maintained he doesn’t know and didn’t assault Carroll, though U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over the most recent trial, said before the case went to trial that he could not make those claims in court, because he’s already been found liable.
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