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
Carroll rests her case, defense seeks directed verdict
Following concluding statements, E. Jean Carroll's attorneys have rested their case.
They will now give way to Trump's attorneys to present the defense's case.
The defense, meanwhile, has asked the judge for a directed verdict to halt the proceedings and decide the case in their favor.
Carroll's attorneys highlight clips from Trump's 2022 deposition
E. Jean Carroll's attorneys ended their defamation case against former President Trump by showing the jury some of Trump's social media posts and soundbites from his campaign rallies in which he repeats the defamatory statements he has made about her.
The jury also saw a portion of Trump's videotaped deposition for Carroll's case that he sat for in October 2022, in which Trump was given a copy of the 2019 New York magazine article that first published Carroll's sexual assault allegation.
"Did you ever read this article?" plaintiff's attorney Roberta Kaplan asked in the deposition. "No," Trump responded.
Kaplan, in the deposition, also read Trump's defamatory response to the article and asked, "Do you stand by the statement?" Trump responded, "Yes."
The jury also heard Trump in the deposition affirm that he stood by a June 24, 2019, statement in which he said Carroll was "not my type."
"You meant she was not your type, physically right?" Kaplan asked. "Physically, she's not my type," Trump responded. "The only difference between me and other people is that I'm honest."
The jury also saw the excerpt of the deposition in which Trump was handed an old black-and-white photo of him, his first wife Ivana, Carroll, and her then-husband John Johnson, and temporarily mistook Carroll for his second wife Marla Maples.
After the confusion, Kaplan, in the deposition, asked Trump if the three women he married were his type, and Trump answered, "Yeah."
Trump, in the deposition, also conceded that he had no information about Carroll's political party or evidence that she was pursuing a political agenda.
The jury also saw an excerpt of a videotaped deposition Trump gave in April 2023 as part of Trump's separate civil fraud lawsuit in which Trump boasted about his wealth, and estimated that the value of his Mar-a-Lago resort is $1.5 billion -- possibly meant to show the jury that Trump can afford a large damage award.
Carroll is a 'truth teller,' former editor says
E. Jean Carroll was a "beloved" columnist at Elle magazine, her former editor testified as the final witness in Carroll's case.
"She was beloved by the readers," Roberta Myers testified. "I would say she was the most prominent columnist that we had. I thought of her column as a destination. People would often pick up the magazine and go to her column first."
"She's a truth-teller," Myers said of Carroll.
On cross-examination, defense attorney Alina Habba established that Myers is a registered Democrat who did not vote for Trump in either 2016 or 2020.
When Habba asked whether Myers planned to vote for Trump in 2024, Myers answered, "I don't think I have to say what I plan to do."
Trump watched Myers' testimony from his seat at the defense table.
Elle magazine editor takes the stand
After a late start, today's proceedings are underway in former President Trump's defamation damages trial.
Roberta Myers, the former editor-in-chief of Elle magazine, where E. Jean Carroll was an advice columnist, has taken the stand to testify for Carroll.
Trump is seated at the defense table with his attorneys.
Judge instructs Trump to keep his voice down
Former President Trump has been making side commentary during E. Jean Carroll's testimony within earshot of the jury, Carroll's lawyer complained during a break in the proceedings, outside the jury's presence.
"Mr. Trump is sitting at the back table and has been loudly saying things" like "'Carroll's statements are false' and 'she now seems to have gotten her memory back,'" the attorney, Shawn Crowley, told Judge Kaplan.
Sitting at the defense table, Trump has been seen scoffing, chuckling, and encouraging his attorney, Alina Habba, to interject during the proceedings. He has been visibly shaking his head at some of what Carroll asserts on the witness stand.
When, earlier, Judge Kaplan denied the defense's request for an adjournment and instructed Habba to "sit down," Trump was heard saying, "He is a very nasty guy."
During Carroll's testimony in which she said she interpreted Trump's remark that "she's not my type" to mean "I'm too ugly to assault," Trump was heard laughing after the judge overruled a defense objection.
Before the jury returned to the courtroom, Judge Kaplan addressed Trump's side comments and instructed him to "take special care" to keep his voice down when conferring with counsel, "so that the jury does not overhear it."