Jury orders Trump to pay $5M in damages to Carroll for battery and defamation
Rachel Schilke
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Former President Donald Trump sexually abused E. Jean Carroll, subsequently defamed her, and has been ordered to pay roughly $5 million in damages, a New York jury found Tuesday — but jurors dismissed her rape claims.
The nine-person jury reached the decision unanimously after close to three hours of deliberation.
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Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist, accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York in the mid-1990s. He denied the accusations and called them a “hoax” and Carroll a “liar.”
Jurors determined that while there was not a preponderance of evidence to prove that Trump raped Carroll, there was enough evidence to prove that he sexually abused her and defamed her when she stepped forward with her claims.
Trump is now ordered to pay $5 million to Carroll, including $2 million for sexual abuse, $1.7 million for reputation repair damages, and $1 million for malice and injury related to defamation.
The jury was tasked with determining whether Trump was liable for civil battery and defamation, and for the first time in the history of the United States found that a former president liable for sexual abuse, though the jury rejected the more serious rape allegations.
The standard for the jury to make the determination in this case, the preponderance of the evidence, is lower than in criminal court, in which the jury needs to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Carroll’s attorneys presented several pieces of evidence, such as the former president’s past derogatory comments toward women and other women’s testimony regarding his alleged sexual misconduct toward them.
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Defense attorneys for Trump sought to discredit Carroll’s claims and called her story an “unbelievable work of fiction,” twisted by people’s feelings of “hate” toward the former president.
Trump said on social media on Tuesday prior to the verdict that he would appeal “the unconstitutional silencing of me, as a candidate, no matter the outcome,” despite being offered the chance to testify.