Donald Trump ordered to pay $126m in damages for defaming writer E Jean Carroll

It comes after a different civil court jury last year found him liable for that, as well as sexual abuse, The New York Post reports.

Carroll, a former longtime Elle magazine advice columnist, was initially seeking US$10 million in damages.

But during closing arguments on Friday, her lawyer upped that to US$24 million, saying the real estate magnate should pay his alleged abuse victim at least that much for defaming Carroll because “the only thing he cares about is money.”

Carroll’s lawyers argued that Trump “unleashed his followers” on the “Ask E Jean” writer after she claimed he raped her in the mid-1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in New York.

The “Ask E Jean” advice columnist claims her journalistic reputation was ruined when the former president denied knowing her and said she wasn’t his type when he was in office in 2019.

Ms Carroll, 80, started the lawsuit against Trump in November of that year, five months after his denials and his followers attacked her online.

Attorneys for Carroll and Trump rested their cases after closing arguments Friday morning local time.

The former president stormed out of the courtroom just minutes into Carroll’s lawyer’s remarks, returning just over an hour later.

Trump took the stand to defend himself for just three minutes on Thursday, marking the first time a jury heard directly from Trump, live in court — in any of the current cases against him — since he left the White House.

Since the case is a civil one, Trump was not required to be in court but had vowed from the outset that he intended to “go to all days” of the trial.

Donald Trump blasted the whopping US$83 million verdict he was ordered to pay.

“Absolutely ridiculous!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social roughly 20 minutes after the verdict came down.

He was not in the courtroom when it was handed down.

Trump said he was appealing the decision and repeated his refrain that the case was a “witch hunt.”

“Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon,” the post continued. “They have taken away all First Amendment Rights. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!”

E Jean Carroll hugged her two lawyers after a jury read out a verdict ordering Donald Trump to pay a whopping $83 million for defaming the journalist.

Before the verdict was read, the “Ask E Jean” advice columnist held hands with her lawyers Roberta Kaplan and Shawn Crowley.

The former president had already left the building when the decision came down.

When the New York journalist walked out of court, arm-in-arm with her lawyers, she flashed a grin before hopping in a black SUV, without answering questions by reporters.

This article originally appeared in The New York Post and was reproduced here with permission.