Former US President Donald Trump must pay writer Jean Carroll $83.3 million in defamation damages. This was decided by a jury in New York. Carroll had sued Trump for defamation in social media posts, press conferences and campaign events. The amount of compensation is many times higher than the ten million dollars demanded by Carroll. Trump announced on his online network Truth Social that he wanted to appeal the verdict.
The lawsuit was the second civil lawsuit between Carroll and Trump. At the end of the first trial in May, a New York jury found it proven that Trump had attacked Carroll in a luxury New York department store in 1996, sexually abused him and later slandered him. The jury then awarded the writer compensation of five million dollars.
During closing arguments, Trump stands up and leaves
Because she also viewed Trump’s subsequent comments as defamatory, Carroll then sued again. Even before the start of the second trial, Judge Kaplan agreed with her and ruled that further comments by Trump were defamatory. The jury now only had to decide on the amount of compensation that the ex-president had to pay to the woman.
Trump had already appeared in person several times in the second trial – unlike the first, where he was completely absent – and attracted attention through numerous commenting opinions. That’s why the judge had already threatened him with exclusion. During closing arguments, Trump unexpectedly left the courtroom on Friday. Shortly after Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan began her plea, Trump got up without prior notice and left the room, US media reported unanimously.
A drawing from the courtroom shows Donald Trump leaving his seat during closing arguments.
(Photo: JANE ROSENBERG/REUTERS)
The 77-year-old Trump is considered the Republicans’ most promising candidate in the November presidential election. However, he also currently has to deal with the courts in several different cases. Trump often uses the court dates as a kind of campaign appearance.