After the decision was announced, E. Jean Carroll and her lawyers locked hands as they stood for the jury to exit, and multiple jurors appeared to nod toward them as they left the courtroom for the final time.

Carroll and her lawyers immediately broke into a group hug as soon as Kaplan dismissed the parties.

Trump's defense team promptly exited the courtroom once they were dismissed, and his attorney Alina Habba thanked the court's staff for their service.

Shortly after Judge Kaplan's deputy read the verdict, the judge thanked the jury for their service and offered them a suggestion about interacting with the media.

"My advice to you is that you never disclose that you were on this jury, and I won't say anything more about it," Kaplan told the jury.

Writing on his social media platform, former President Trump called the $83 million decision "Absolutely ridiculous!" and said he will appeal.

The former president was not in the courtroom when the decision was announced.

Former President Donald Trump must pay writer E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million for defaming her in 2019 after she accused him of sexually assaulting her in a department store in the 1990s.

The jury determined that Trump must pay $18.3 million in compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive damages.

Carroll had sought at least $12 million for reputation repair, plus additional compensatory and punitive damages.

A separate jury last year found Trump liable for sexually assaulting then defaming Carroll, awarding her $5 million in damages.

The current jury of nine New Yorkers -- including a former schoolteacher, a transit worker, and a property manager -- rendered a verdict after deliberating for just under three hours.

The jury in former President Donald Trump's defamation damages case has reached a verdict.

The judge has called the parties back into the courtroom to hear the verdict read.

The jury will announce whether they have found E. Jean Carroll suffered damages as a result of Trump's statements, and, if so, how much they award Carroll in both compensatory and punitive damages.

Former television newswoman Carol Martin, testifying as a hostile witness for the defense, said that her longtime friend E. Jean Carroll "has an admirable reputation in the workplace."

Martin testified that she did, "on some levels," have concern for her safety and her daughter's safety after Carroll went public in 2019 with her sexual assault accusation against Donald Trump. Martin was among the friends Carroll had told about the assault.

"As I saw the popularity of that article, my daughter became more concerned," Martin said of the 2019 New York magazine story in which Carroll made the accusation.

"Ms. Carroll assured you she didn't have security concerns?" defense attorney Alina Habba asked. "That was her opinion," Martin said. "Jeanie didn't want us to worry."

Habba has argued that the harm Carroll said she suffered as a result of Trump's defamatory statements is overblown.

"Did you think Ms. Carroll enjoyed the attention?" Habba asked. "At points, in early years," Martin responded. She also affirmed she had texted a friend that Carroll's "narcissism had run amok."

Martin testified that "at some point" she became frustrated with what Habba described as Carroll's "celebratory behavior" in connection with her lawsuits against Trump. "It's a difference in our personalities, but we work around it," Martin said.

At one point Martin said she felt Carroll was "loving the adulation."

"Do you believe Ms. Carroll is enjoying this fame to some extent?" Habba asked. "I think she is adapting to this phase in her life. Enjoying is a multifaceted word," Martin said, ending her direct examination.