- By Abhirupa Kundu
- Sat, 27 Jan 2024 10:43 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
Former United States president Donald Trump on Friday faced a stinging defeat by a Manhattan jury that ordered him to pay USD 83.3 million to the writer E Jean Carroll, who said he destroyed her reputation as a trustworthy journalist by denying he raped her.
Trump who is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge the Democratic President Joe Biden plans to appeal in the case which has been posing as a hurdle in Trump's plan to retake the White House.
The sum that the former U.S. president was ordered to pay far exceeded the minimum USD 10 million Carroll had sought.
"Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon, THIS IS NOT AMERICA!" Trump took to social media to voice.
Expressing her opinion on the verdict, Carroll, 80, said, "This is a great victory for every woman who stands up when she's been knocked down, and a huge defeat for every bully who has tried to keep a woman down."
The former Elle magazine advice columnist sued Trump in November 2019 over his denials five months earlier that he had raped her in the mid-1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan.
Carroll testified that Trump's denials "shattered" her reputation as a respected journalist who told the truth.
The jury of seven men and two women, whose members were kept anonymous, awarded Carroll USD 18.3 million in compensatory damages, including USD 11 million for harm to her reputation. Carroll also was awarded USD 65 million in punitive damages, which she said was needed to stop Trump from continuing to defame her.
Trump, 77, maintained that he had never heard of Carroll, and that she made up her story to boost sales of her memoir. His lawyers said Carroll was hungry for fame and enjoyed the attention from supporters for speaking out against her nemesis.
In May 2023, another jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll USD 5 million over a similar October 2022 denial, finding that he had defamed and sexually abused Carroll. Trump is appealing that decision, and set aside USD 5.55 million with the Manhattan court during that process.
