Lawsuit puts Trump at risk of losing $88 million

Carroll said she was shopping at Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue in 1996 when she ran into Trump, who lived nearby. She said they recognized each other. At the time, Carroll had a column in Elle magazine and hosted the television show "Ask E. Jean."

In her testimony and memoir, Carroll said she and Trump went to the lingerie section of a supermarket and into a dressing room, where they tried to persuade each other to try on an attractive piece of lingerie.

During this time, no sales staff was present. Two of Carroll's friends testified that the journalist told them the incident immediately after it happened.

After she wrote about the incident in New York magazine in 2019, Trump, who had been elected president by then, told reporters that he did not know who Carroll was and that her allegations were “total lies” and were motivated by a desire to sell his memoirs. “She’s not my type,” he insisted.

Former US President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 27. Photo: AFP

This led to two lawsuits against Mr. Trump initiated by Carroll, both being handled by Judge Lewis Kaplan in a New York court.

Carroll sued Trump for defamation in 2019, saying his statements about her were false and damaged her reputation, career and caused emotional distress.

But the lawsuit has been mired in litigation for years. Trump has claimed that his role as president shields him from liability in defamation cases.

The former journalist also sued over what he said about her after leaving the White House, listing a social media post he made in October 2022, saying "I don't know who this woman is" and "she completely made up the story", despite a published photo showing the Trumps meeting the journalist and her husband.

Decision

In the other case, a New York jury on January 26 found that Mr. Trump had seriously damaged Carroll’s reputation. They ordered him to pay $7.3 million in compensatory damages, $11 million in damages for loss of reputation, and an additional $65 million in punitive damages to deter him from further attacks on the journalist.

If both rulings stand, Mr. Trump would owe her a total of $88.3 million.

Trump’s legal team is appealing the ruling in the first case and has vowed to appeal the second. The former president’s lawyers want higher courts to rule that Trump has the right to deny Carroll’s and the former journalist’s allegations of ulterior motives. “Everybody has the right to defend themselves,” Habba said.

The appeal will go to a panel of judges in New York and could be sent to the US Supreme Court for consideration.

Mr. Trump deposited more than $5.5 million into an escrow account (a court-controlled account) in the first lawsuit, which is a procedure for the appeal effort to proceed.

Former journalist E. Jean Carroll leaves court after a verdict in a defamation lawsuit against Mr. Trump in New York on January 26. Photo: AFP

If the former president continues to publicly say Carroll made up the story, she could sue for each new statement he makes. The $88.3 million fine is actually less than what some Trump allies have faced in recent defamation lawsuits.

A jury last year ruled that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani must pay two former Georgia election officials $148 million for spreading conspiracy theories about them.

Juries in Texas and Connecticut have returned defamation verdicts against Alex Jones, the founder of the news site Infowars, ordering him to pay $1.5 billion in damages for falsely claiming that the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting was a hoax.

Unlike Giuliani or Jones, Trump may have the financial resources to pay for it. According to his most recent annual report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021, the former president had about $294 million in cash or cash equivalents, not including the real estate holdings he claims are worth billions of dollars.

Trump still faces other potential financial liabilities, however. He is awaiting a verdict in a civil fraud trial where the state of New York is seeking to seize from the former president $370 million in what it says are ill-gotten profits from loans and deals made using financial statements that overstated the value of his assets.

Speaking after the New York jury reached its verdict on January 26, Carroll said she would "not waste a penny" of the compensation.

“We’re going to do something good with it,” she said. “This victory, more than anything else, comes when we need it most, after losing our rights to our own bodies in so many states. We planted the flag of victory with this fight. Women won. I think it bodes well for the future.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Trump's side also emphasized their determination to appeal. "We will continue to fight. And I assure you, even if we do not win today, we will win," said Alina Habba, Mr. Trump's lawyer.

Vu Hoang (According to AP, Reuters, AFP )

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