E Jean Carroll vs Donald Trump: 5 key takeaways from the defamation trial

E Jean Carroll, a writer and journalist who accused Donald Trump of raping her in the mid-1990s, has won a major victory in her legal battle against the former US president. On Friday, a New York jury awarded her $83.3m in damages for defamation, after finding that Trump lied when he denied her allegations and called her a political operative.

This is the second time that Carroll has prevailed in court against Trump, who is facing multiple lawsuits from women who claim he sexually assaulted or harassed them. In June 2023, another jury awarded her $5m in a separate case for assault and battery, based on the same incident that she described in her 2019 book, What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal.

Carroll’s book, which was excerpted in New York magazine, detailed how Trump allegedly attacked her in a dressing room of a luxury department store in Manhattan, around early 1996. She said she fought him off and escaped, but never reported the incident to the police. Trump responded by saying he had never met her, despite a photo showing them together, and that she was lying to sell her book and help the Democrats.

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Carroll sued him for defamation in 2019, but the case was delayed by Trump’s attempts to invoke presidential immunity and move it to federal court. In 2022, a new law in New York allowed survivors of sexual abuse to sue their perpetrators, regardless of the statute of limitations.

Here are five key moments from the defamation trial:

• Carroll testified that Trump’s denials ruined her reputation and career. She said that he lied about her and made her look like a fraud and a traitor. She said that she lost her column at Elle magazine, her book sales plummeted, and she received death threats and hate mail from Trump’s supporters.
• Carroll said that she feared for her life and safety after Trump’s denials. She said that he used his power and influence to incite violence against her. She said that he asked his followers to find dirt on her and to make her pay dearly. She said that she got a pit bull to guard her property and a gun to protect herself.
• Trump’s lawyer tried to discredit Carroll by using her own words against her. She questioned Carroll about her tweets and posts that were related to sex and relationships. She showed the jury a tweet from 2013, where Carroll asked, “What CAN be done about the penis? It gets large when you want it small, and stays small when you want it large.” She implied that Carroll was obsessed with penises and had a motive to lie about Trump.
• Carroll defended herself by saying that she was a humorist and a feminist, and that her tweets and posts were meant to be funny and provocative. She said that they had nothing to do with her credibility or her allegations against Trump. She said that she was not ashamed of her sexuality or her writing, and that she had the right to express herself.
• Trump had outbursts in court as Carroll spoke. He interrupted her testimony several times, calling her a liar, a con artist, and a witch. He said that the trial was a witch-hunt and a con-job. He accused the judge and the jury of being biased and corrupt. He said that he would appeal the verdict and win.