Topline
A federal judge rejected former President Donald Trump’s request for a new trial—or to throw out the $83.3 million defamation ruling—against writer E. Jean Carroll, who sued Trump twice alleging defamation and sexual assault, marking the latest legal loss for the former president.
Former President Donald Trump had requested a new trial and that the $83.3 million he was ordered to ... [+]
Key Facts
In the Thursday ruling rejecting the request for a new trial or the judgment to be dismissed, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said Trump’s argument was “without merit,” made “conspicuously without success” and “defies common sense.”
Trump argued in the rejected motion that the court “erred in excluding evidence and in instructing the jury on common law malice” and that the more than $18 million in compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive damages awarded were “excessive and must be remitted.”
In January, a jury determined Trump had to pay Carroll $83.3 million in damages for defaming her after she accused him of sexual assault, adding to the $5 million the jury in a different case ordered Trump to pay her after it found him liable for sexual assault in the 1990s and subsequent defamation.
Robbie Kaplan, Carroll’s lawyer, told Forbes in a statement they are “pleased with though not surprised by” the court’s decision, adding the award was “entirely reasonable” because of Trump’s continued defamation, “hatred and disdain.”
Forbes has reached out to a lawyer for Trump for comment.
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Crucial Quote
“Mr. Trump’s malicious and unceasing attacks on Ms. Carroll were disseminated to more than 100 million people … and they endangered Ms. Carroll’s health and safety,” Kaplan wrote in the ruling. “The jury was entitled to conclude that Mr. Trump derailed the career, reputation, and emotional well-being of one of America’s most successful and prominent advice columnists and authors.”
Big Number
$91.6 million. That’s how much the bond payment Trump paid in March was to guarantee his ability to pay the verdict against him, plus interest. The bond payment was underwritten by insurance company The Chubb Corporation, though it was unclear how Trump secured the bond and whether he put up any of his properties as collateral.
Key Background
In 2019, Carroll accused Trump of sexual assault, saying he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s. Trump, however, said she wasn’t his “type” and that he didn’t know her, leading the writer to file a defamation suit alleging Trump’s reaction caused her “emotional pain and suffering at the hands of the man who raped her, as well as injury to her reputation, honor and dignity.” Trump fought the case and got it delayed until this January, though in the meantime Carroll sued Trump again under New York’s Adult Survivors Act and a jury found him liable for sexual assault—not rape—and defamation, ordering he pay her $5 million. This January, Carroll’s 2019 case went to trial and the jury found Trump owed her more than $80 million for defamation, the majority of which was awarded in punitive damages, which are meant to dissuade Trump from defaming Carroll more.
Forbes Valuation
Forbes estimates Trump has a net worth of about $4.9 billion as of Thursday afternoon. In early March, before he made a number of high-priced bond payments, Forbes estimated the former president had about $413 million in cash.
Tangent
The former president is currently at his hush money trial, where New York prosecutors allege he falsified business records when reimbursing his then-lawyer Michael Cohen to cover the cost of a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump also had a legal team in Washington on Thursday, arguing before the Supreme Court on the question of whether Trump has immunity from criminal charges for trying to overturn the 2020 election.
Further Reading
