Trump, Carroll to wrap up defamation trial

[January 26, 2024]  By Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The writer E. Jean Carroll's lawsuit against Donald Trump is likely headed for a jury on Friday, after lawyers for both sides offer final arguments on how much Trump damaged Carroll's reputation by denying he raped her.

Carroll, 80, is seeking at least $10 million over Trump's June 2019 denials, when he was president, that he had raped her in the mid-1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan.

Trump, 77, accused Carroll of making up the encounter to boost sales of her memoir.

But another jury last May ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million over a similar denial in October 2022, finding that Trump had defamed and sexually abused her.

Because that verdict is binding for the current trial, the seven-man, two-woman jury need decide only how much Trump owes Carroll for harming her reputation, and whether to impose punitive damages to keep Trump from defaming her again.

Trump on Thursday spent only four minutes defending himself on the witness stand, after U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan forbade him and his lawyers from revisiting issues that the first trial had settled.

The former president was allowed to stand by testimony he gave in an October 2022 deposition, in which he called Carroll's claims a "hoax" and said she was "mentally sick." Jurors had earlier been shown video excerpts from the deposition.

Carroll had written the "Ask E. Jean" column for Elle from 1993 to 2019, and often appeared on such programs as NBC's "Today" and ABC's "Good Morning America."

E. Jean Carroll walks outside Manhattan Federal Court on the day of the second civil trial, after she accused former U.S. President Donald Trump of raping her decades ago, in New York City, U.S., January 25, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan Mcdermid

She said those appearances dried up after Trump called her a liar, and that his denials led her to be bombarded with online death threats and other attacks that have yet to stop.

Lawyers for Trump have said it was Carroll's accusations and not Trump's denials that prompted the attacks, saying the attacks began even before the former president said anything.

Trump, a Republican, is seeking to retake the White House in the November election in a likely showdown against Democrat Joe Biden, who beat him in 2020.

The race is expected to be close even though Trump faces 91 felony counts in four separate criminal indictments, including two cases accusing him of trying to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss.

Trump has tried to make his legal travails a campaign asset, claiming he is a victim of biased prosecutors, plaintiffs like Carroll, and an unfair judicial system.

The trial has lasted four days. It began on Jan. 16, but was delayed because of COVID-19 scares.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Alistair Bell)

[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.