On Thursday, a New York federal judge denied former President Donald Trump a new trial in the civil defamation case brought against him by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, leaving Trump liable for the $83.3 million judgment from the first trial.
During the initial proceedings, Carroll claimed Trump had ruined her reputation as a credible journalist and subjected her to threats and harassment in 2019 while he contested sexual assault charges in court. Carroll had previously alleged that Trump raped her in a department store sometime in the 1990s (her memory of the incident was infamously unclear). Last year, a separate jury found the former president not guilty of rape but held him liable for sexual abuse and defamation, ordering him to pay $5 million.
Then, in January, a second New York jury took up Carroll’s second lawsuit, which again charged Trump with defamation for claiming that he had never even heard of Carroll and that her allegations were made up to help sell her memoir. As Valuetainment previously reported, the jury in the follow-up case mandated that Trump pay Carroll $11 million to repair the damage to her reputation, $7.3 million for emotional harm, and another $65 million in punitive damages.
The sum total of damages—$83.3 million—is more than three times the amount Carroll’s legal team asked for in its closing argument and 10 times more than Carroll asked for in the initial lawsuit.
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At the time, Trump promised to contest the ruling and filed for a new trial. However, in a decision handed down on Thursday, District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan—who oversaw the previous proceedings—determined that the defense’s motion for a retrial was “without merit.” He also maintained that the low burden of proof for the case was within acceptable limits.
“Mr. Trump’s malicious and unceasing attacks on Ms. Carroll were disseminated to more than 100 million people,” the judge wrote. “They included public threats and personal attacks, and they endangered Ms. Carroll’s health and safety. The jury was entitled to conclude that Mr. Trump derailed the career, reputation, and emotional well-being of one of America’s most successful and prominent advice columnists and authors.”
Following the ruling, Trump will now be required to pay out the $83.3 million settlement, which he previously posted as a bond.
Connor Walcott is a staff writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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