United States: Former US President Donald Trump was ordered to pay $83.3m to a writer he is accused of defaming after denying her claims of sexual assault.
Entire $18.3 million in compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive damages were given to former Elle magazine columnist E Jean Carroll by a jury comprised of seven men and two women on Friday.
The New York courtroom was filled with audible gasps as the civil order was announced. It is significantly larger than Carroll’s requested damages of over $10 million.
The pay follows a May jury’s decision finding Trump accountable for Carrol’s sexual abuse and defamation and requiring him to reimburse her $5 million in damages.
Both trials were civil proceedings, which do not establish guilt by a jury and instead rely on the lesser standard of preponderance of the evidence.
The only question posed to the jury was not whether Carroll was sexually assaulted, but rather how much Trump, 77, should pay her for two remarks he made in denial of her allegations while he was president.
After a fortuitous meeting at a department store in New York in 1996, Carroll has accused Trump of pressing himself on her.
Carroll was branded a “complete con job” by Trump, who refuted the accusation and claimed Carroll was only trying to increase the sales of her memoir.
Carrol, who testified that Trump’s denials “shattered” her reputation as a respected journalist, hailed the verdict as 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” in a statement released through a publicist following the verdict.
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