On this courtroom sketch, E. Jean Carroll, proper, turns round in direction of Donald Trump, seated, left, on Tuesday in New York. Credit score: AP
He additionally unleashed a collection of social media posts, claiming he was the sufferer of a “one-sided trial” and accusing the choose of being “a particularly abusive particular person.”
“He thinks along with his wealth and energy he can deal with Ms Carroll how he needs and can undergo no penalties,” Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, informed the jury.
Trump returned to the courtroom to listen to his lawyer, Alina Habba, ship her closing arguments. Habba advised Carroll welcomed the eye she acquired after going public along with her accusations, and informed the jury that it was not Trump’s fault that Carroll had confronted a backlash from his supporters on social media.
At rallies forward of the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primaries, Trump additionally persistently informed supporters that Carroll was a “liar” a “whack job” and a “sick girl” whom he had by no means met and was not his sort.
However after deliberating for nearly three hours, the jury sided with Carroll, and ordered Trump to pay $US83.3 million in damages. This included $US65 million in punitive damages, $US7.3 million for emotional hurt, and $US11 million for reputational damages.
The discovering is one other watershed second for the #MeToo motion that was set in movement by the sexual predation of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
Whereas Trump is anticipated to enchantment the decision, it may nonetheless have an effect on his standing with an important group of voters he must beat Joe Biden in November: suburban girls.
The decision comes at a vital juncture within the election cycle, with Trump on observe to develop into the Republican presidential candidate after decisive victories in Iowa and New Hampshire.
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Nonetheless, his solely remaining rival, Nikki Haley, has vowed to battle on, beginning with the subsequent main Republican main in her residence state of South Carolina on February 24.
Trump has been accused of sexual harassment or assault by greater than two dozen girls for the reason that Nineteen Seventies, however the case towards Carroll marked the primary time he has been held to account by a civil courtroom. The case was not legal, which means he has not been convicted of any crime and faces no jail time.
The present trial focuses on statements he made after Carroll first publicly accused him of raping her in a 2019 New York Journal article, and for assaults on her since, by way of social media posts, on tv and on the marketing campaign path.
A lot of these assaults have since been adopted by his supporters, alongside along with his denials. As an example, at a rally Iowa earlier this month, Trump made jokes concerning the trauma Carroll informed the courtroom she had suffered.
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He additionally insisted he wouldn’t have taken her right into a change room of a division retailer – the place she claims the assault passed off – given he had his personal condo and different properties round Manhattan.
Requested concerning the Carroll case, Trump supporter Dick Inexperienced, an evangelical pastor, informed this masthead in Iowa that he believed the trial was a part of a political witch hunt.
“If he needed to have intercourse with a lady, he had a lodge or two proper there shut by,” he mentioned. “He may have taken somebody there, however she claims he did this in a dressing room? Are you kidding me?”
The most recent case is one in all many who Trump faces as he seeks to return to workplace. Between this week and the February 24 South Carolina main, Trump can be set to face a verdict in a New York civil fraud trial, together with an appeals courtroom determination on his claims that presidential immunity protects him from prosecution for election subversion.