A federal judge in New York upheld a defamation verdict against Donald Trump, keeping him on the hook for the $83 million he owes E. Jean Carroll, the writer who accused him of sexual assault.
Trump had motioned to receive a new trial, but Judge Lewis Kaplan rebuffed that effort, determining nothing was wrong with the first one that ruled against him.
The decision affirms that Carroll suffered harm from Trump publicly railing against her in 2019, as she went public with her more than decade-old sexual assault allegations against Trump.
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“Contrary to the defendant’s arguments, Ms. Carroll’s compensatory damages were not awarded solely for her emotional distress; they were not for garden variety harms; and they were not excessive,” Kaplan wrote in a opinion obtained by The Daily Beast.
“Mr. Trump’s argument is entirely without merit both as a matter of law and as a matter of fact,” he added. “Trump’s malicious and unceasing attacks on Ms. Carroll were disseminated to more than 100 million people. They included public threats and personal attacks, and they endangered Ms. Carroll’s health and safety.”
The lawsuit goes back to 2019, when Carroll claimed she was sexually abused by Trump in 1996 inside a New York department store changing room. Trump proceeded to deny the allegation and viciously attack Carroll, which prompted her to sue him for defamation. The trial concluded last year with a jury awarding Carroll $5 million.
Even after that verdict, Trump continued to publicly assail her—which led to another successful defamation lawsuit. Carroll is on the verge of pocketing an extra $83 million after she successfully argued Trump’s post-trial attacks were meant to harm her and indeed tanked her reputation.
Carroll, a former magazine columnist, did not immediately address Thursday’s news. Neither did Trump, who spent the day sitting in a separate New York City courtroom as his hush-money trial plays out.
