Former United States’ President, Donald Trump, has described the ruling given by a federal jury on Friday ordering him to pay $83.3 million in damages for allegedly defaming a popular writer, E. Jean Carroll as “absolute ridiculous.”
The court had awarded Carroll $18.3 million in compensatory damages, and $65 million in punitive damages. The compensatory amount included $11 million for repairing her reputation, and $7.3 million for emotional harm.
Carroll's attorneys also asked the jury to award $24 million in compensatory damages, saying that should be enough to make Trump stop defaming her client.
"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,” the lawyer reacted to the ruling in a statement she issued on Friday.
In his reaction to the court ruling via his press statement he released across social media platforms, the former president said he disagreed with the judgement and he would ask his legal team to appeal against it at the Superior court.
His statement reads: “Absolutely ridiculous! I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party. Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon. They have taken away all First Amendment Rights. THIS IS NOT AMERICA.”
Carroll, a longstanding advice columnist, filed an article for New York magazine in 2019 alleging Trump of sexually assaulting her in a department store changing room in the mid-1990s. Trump, who was president at the time, instantly refuted the charges, describing Carroll as a "whack job" and stating he had never met her. He would go on to make similar denials in public, on social media, and even in court, a pattern noted by Carroll's counsel during the trial.
Carroll filed two defamation cases against Trump in 2019 and 2022, claiming his disparaging remarks destroyed her reputation and subjected her to an ongoing flood of threats. In the trial to settle Carroll's first action in May 2023, a jury held Trump guilty for defamation and sexual abuse and gave Carroll $5 million.
Before the second trial began, the court determined that Carroll was telling the truth about the assault and that Trump's words disputing her accusations were defamatory. The jury's only responsibility was to determine the amount of damages Carroll was entitled to.
The $83million verdict came only days after Trump won the New Hampshire primary, cementing his position as the Republican presidential contender.