Former President Donald Trump was ordered by a federal jury on Friday (26) to pay approximately $83.3 million in damages to E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of destroying her reputation as a reliable journalist by denying that raped her almost three decades ago.
++ Former Trump advisor sentenced to 4 months in prison for contempt of Congress
As a result, the jury made up of seven men and two women needed less than three hours to reach the verdict. The value went beyond what Carroll asked for, which was around US$10 million (R$49 million).
Additionally, the jury awarded him $18.3 million in compensatory damages and approximately $65 million in punitive damages, the name given to the measure that seeks to punish a defendant for certain conduct.
It is worth remembering that Carroll, 80, sued Trump in November 2019 because he denied, five months earlier, that he had raped her in the mid-1990s in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan.
++ Trump beats Haley in New Hampshire Republican primary
Trump, 77, claimed he had never heard of Carroll and that she made up her story to boost sales of her memoir.
In May, in a first trial on the case, a jury awarded Carroll damages of approximately US$5 million (R$24.5 million) after concluding that Trump sexually abused the writer, and then defamed her in 2022, alleging that She invented the story.
Thus, the writer said at the time, during the trial, that she had not gone to the police or the hospital after the case. She also stated that she published the story in the book inspired by the Me Too movement, which denounces sexual abuse.
“It took me a long time to realize that being silent doesn’t work,” she said.
After Friday’s ruling, Carroll said punitive damages are appropriate, in part to prevent Trump from repeating his denials.
Make sure to like our Facebook and Instagram pages for more M5PORTS news.
