E. Jean Carroll defamation case: Judge denies Trump's motion for mistrial
A jury ordered Donald Trump to pay Carroll $83 million for defaming her.
Former President Donald Trump, at the end of a five-day trial, has been ordered to pay $83.3 million in damages to former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll for defaming her in 2019 when he denied her allegations of sexual abuse.
Last year, in a separate trial, a jury determined that Trump was liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the 1990s, and that he defamed her in a 2022 social media post by calling her allegations "a Hoax and a lie" and saying "This woman is not my type!"
Trump has denied all wrongdoing and has said he doesn't know who Carroll is.
Top headlines:
- Jury awards Carroll $83.3 million in damages
- Trump walks out during plaintiff's closing statement
- Trump testifies he denied allegations to defend himself
- Repairing Carroll's reputation would cost $12M, says expert
- 'I would love it,' Trump says to judge's threat to toss him
- Trump 'ended the world that I had been living in,' Carroll says
- 'This is not a do-over,' judge instructs jury
Trump seated in courtroom
Donald Trump has taken a seat in court, where jury selection in his defamation trial is scheduled to get underway this morning.
His decision to attend this trial is a clear shift for the former president, whose lawyers portrayed his absence from last year's defamation and battery trial as a service to New York City, saying the city would not have to suffer the "logistical and financial burdens" of Trump's attendance.
Carroll's attorneys, however, pounced on Trump's absence.
"He didn't even bother to show up here in person," attorney Roberta Kaplan told the jury.
Writing on social media last month, Trump blamed his absence at the trial on "not good advice" from his then-lawyer Joe Tacopina.
"I was asked by my lawyer not to attend--'It was beneath me, and they have no case.' That was not good advice," Trump wrote.
Trump attorney Alina Habba is serving as Trump's lead defense attorney for this week's trial.
Carroll arrives for trial
E. Jean Carroll has arrived at the courthouse for the first day of the trial.
The former Elle magazine columnist smiled to reporters as she entered court.
Trump arrives at courthouse
Following his victory in Iowa, former President Trump landed at 3:30 a.m. in New York and just arrived at his civil defamation trial in lower Manhattan.
Trump is not required to attend the trial, though his decision not to attend last year's defamation and battery trial by the same plaintiff, writer E. Jean Carroll, was mocked by Carroll's attorney.
Trump's motorcade pulled up to the courthouse this morning at at 8:50 a.m. ET.
On heels of Iowa victory, Trump is back on trial
When Donald Trump's federal defamation trial gets underway in lower Manhattan this morning, it will be only about 11 hours since the former president claimed victory in the Iowa caucuses.
The trial is expected to take about a week, which could take Trump right to the doorstep of the New Hampshire Primary, scheduled for next Tuesday.
The former president did not attend last year's trial, held at the same courthouse, where a New York jury found him liable for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll and defaming her when he denied her accusation in a 2022 social media post.
Judge denies defense's motion for directed verdict
The defense's motion for a directed verdict, made after Carroll's attorneys rested their case, asked the judge to end the trial due to a lack of evidence.
"Ms. Carroll has failed to establish any causal link between her claim for damages and President Trump's statement," defense attorney Alina Habba said. "On causation alone, she has not proven her facts."
Habba argued, as she did in her opening statement, that people were disparaging Carroll prior to Trump issuing his defamatory denials. She also argued Carroll could not prove she received death threats at the time because she deleted messages that contained them, prompting an interjection from the judge.
"Your theory here is that she should be punished because, before there was litigation, she deleted tweets that could be helpful to her?" Judge Lewis Kaplan asked. "That's not my argument," Habba replied. "Sounds like it," the judge said.
Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, argued that she had met her burden.
"We believe there is more than ample evidence, causation, here to allow the case to go to the jury," Roberta Kaplan said.
The judge denied the defense's motion. Next up will be the defense's first witness.