Former President Donald Trump suffered a major legal blow on Thursday in his ongoing saga involving E. Jean Carroll.
Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled against Trump's attempts for a new trial in the $80 million defamation verdict for Carroll.
"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, for all of the reasons stated in Ms. Carroll's opposition brief," Kaplan wrote in the ruling.
"In sum, an award of $11 million in reputational and $7.3 million in non-reputational compensatory damages is far from a historical anomaly in New York, before even considering the unique scale of the defamation at hand. Thus, the compensatory damages awards were not excessive as a matter of New York law."
In a statement sent to Newsweek, Trump lawyer Alina Habba said: "We categorically disagree with Judge Kaplan's decision. It ignores long-standing constitutional principles and is a prime example of the lawfare raging across this country. We are confident that this decision will be overturned by the Second Circuit."
The Context
In May 2023, Trump was also found liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s. Trump was accused of defaming Carroll by denying the allegations against him.
The jury accepted Carroll's testimony that Trump sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and then defamed her in comments when she filed a case against him. In January, a jury awarded her $83.3 million in damages for other comments he made about her.
What We Know
Trump's lawyers previously asked Kaplan to set aside the January verdict or greatly reduce the amount the jury awarded.
Last month, Trump paid a bond of $91.6 million, which included the $83.3 million plus interest.
Views
MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin responded to the judge's decision on X, formerly Twitter, saying: "That this denial of Trump's request to redo or outright prevail in the second, financially punishing E. Jean Carroll case was issued as David Pecker testifies during the Manhattan DA's criminal trial adds a further surreal quality to these already strange times at 100 Centre Street."
What's Next
As Habba noted in her statement, Trump's legal team is likely to appeal the ruling again in court.
The former president is also facing other legal trouble as he remains in a New York court room for his ongoing criminal trial brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for allegedly covering up hush money payments made to former adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016.
Update 4/25/24, 2:20 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with further information.
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