Donald Trump has been ordered to pay a writer $83.3 million for defaming her

The former American president Donald Trump On Friday he was ordered to pay $83.3 million to the writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her after she accused him of raping her in 2019, the judge announced at the end of the jury’s deliberations.

This amount is much higher than the 10 million that the writer and journalist claimedis split into $65 million for damages and interest, $11 million for reputational damages and $7.3 million for financial compensation.

After just over two hours of deliberation, the jury concluded that Carroll had more than “nominal damageand Trump acted “maliciously, out of hatred, ill will or spite, vengefully or out of indifference, recklessly or deliberately” against the writer and former journalist.

“Absolutely ridiculous! I’m going to appeal,” he responded on his Truth Social platform, where he again described the process as “Witch hunt‘orchestrated by the Democratic president Joe Biden to prevent his return to the White House in the November elections. He also attacked the “out of control justice system”.

In May last year, another jury had found the Republican guilty of assault and defamation and ordered him to pay $5 million to Carroll. The magnate appealed the ruling.

The former president (2017-2021) had left the courtroom in anger as the prosecutor presented his final arguments on Friday morning before returning when it was his lawyer’s turn to argue his case.

The trial judge, Lewis Kaplan, advised the jury, whose names have remained anonymous throughout the trial, to maintain their anonymity. “My advice is to never reveal that you were on this jury.“, said.

Carroll, an 80-year-old writer and journalist, demanded $10 million from the Republican for damage to her reputation following statements in 2019 by the then-president following the publication of a book and an article in which she alleged that the real estate magnate He had raped her in a department store in the 1990s.

“He does what he wants”

Trump, who the journalist usually ‘tared” or “sick‘, he then said that the journalist ‘wasn’t his type’ and that she had invented rape to ‘sell her new book’. “My reputation destroyedthe writer said in court.

“The man who sexually abused (Carroll) does what he wants, lies, slandersone of the writer’s attorneys said in closing arguments.

“He continues to use his huge platform to hurt her (…) and can you imagine what his followers did? “They haven’t stopped chasing her,” he added. The question is how much money it will cost to stop it, he said.

During the course of the morning, Trump already sent a barrage of messages to the judge, the prosecutor and her lawyer.

After comparing the case with that of Monica Lewinskythe intern who had a sexual relationship with the then-president between 1995 and 1996 Bill Clintonechoed that E. Jean Carroll: “who was in the doldrums and failed in life (…) has achieved the money and fame he longed for”.

“A President of the United States was accused of doing something he didn’t do for an UNKNOWN woman, FOR HIM, who was seeking fame, fortune and publicity for her ridiculous book,” Trump said, angrily attacked the legal system, which in its ordeal is ‘chaos’.

Faced with an urge to take the stand to defend himself, Trump was finally able to do so on Thursday, but the investigating judge limited his intervention to three questions to which he had to answer yes or no.

“He says something that I consider untrueTrump declared before Kaplan cut him off.

“This isn’t Americathe billionaire roared as he left the courtroom, visibly angry.

This is one of several judicial fronts facing the former president in the midst of this year’s election race.

91 criminal charges are pending against him in various courts, most closely related to his efforts to cling to power after the elections won four years ago by Democrat Joe Biden, whose victory remains unrecognized. (JO)