A federal judge in New York has denied former President Donald Trump’s request for a new trial in the defamation case filed against him by writer E. Jean Carroll. The judge’s ruling validates the jury’s decision to award $83.3 million in damages.
Judge Lewis Kaplan stated that the defendant’s arguments were false regarding Ms. Carroll’s compensatory damages. He clarified that these damages were not solely awarded for her emotional distress, nor were they for ordinary harms. Additionally, he emphasized that the damages were not excessive.
According to the lawyer representing Ms. Carroll, Mr. Trump’s relentless and harmful assaults on her were seen by over 100 million individuals. These attacks not only involved public threats and personal insults, but also posed a potential risk to Ms. Carroll’s well-being and safety.
Robbie Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney, expressed her joy and satisfaction with the ruling.
“We are satisfied, although not taken aback, with the Court’s ruling today rejecting Donald Trump’s requests for a fresh trial and a judgment as a matter of law,” she expressed in a statement. “The Court elucidated that the jury’s decision to grant E. Jean Carroll $83 million in damages was entirely justified, considering Donald Trump’s persistent defamation of Ms. Carroll throughout the trial and his behavior in the courtroom, where his ‘hatred and disdain [were] on full display.'”
In February, after a five-day trial, Trump was instructed to pay $83.3 million to Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist. This ruling came as a result of his defamation of her in 2019 when he denied her allegations of sexual abuse.
Carroll received a staggering $17.3 million in compensatory damages, along with a whopping $65 million in punitive damages.
In May 2023, Trump faced a separate trial where he was held responsible for sexually assaulting Carroll in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store during the 1990s. He was also found guilty of defaming her through a social media post in 2022. Trump dismissed her claims as a “Hoax and a lie” and stated, “This woman is not my type!”
Although Trump was held responsible for sexual abuse, the jury concluded that he did not commit the alleged rape, as stated by Carroll.
Trump vehemently denied any accusations of wrongdoing and asserted that he had no prior knowledge of Carroll.
In a ruling issued on Thursday, Kaplan dismissed all of Trump’s lawyer’s arguments, stating that the claim made by Mr. Trump to the jury, which had previously been unsuccessful and defies common sense, does not justify a dismissal based on legal grounds.
