Trump, E. Jean Carroll defamation trial deliberations

Jurors on the intercourse defamation trial of Donald Trump started deliberations Friday after a decide informed them Trump “sexually assaulted” author E. Jean Carroll within the mid-1990s and defamed her in statements he made as president whereas denying her allegation.

Judge Lewis Kaplan informed the nine-member jury in Manhattan federal courtroom that they had been to maintain these information in thoughts as deliberated on Carroll’s request for hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in damages from Trump for his defamatory statements.

“What remains for you to decide,” Kaplan stated, is whether or not “Mr. Trump acted maliciously when he made his two statements” about Carroll.

“You must accept as true the facts as I explained to you as they have already been decided,” the decide stated, referring to Trump’s sexual assault of Carroll, and his slandering of her many years later.

Trump appeared on through the directions with a frown on his face.

Earlier, Trump stalked out of the courtroom after Carroll’s lawyer started her closing argument, during which she urged jurors to award financial damages “large enough that it will finally make him stop” slandering the author.

Trump’s dramatic departure got here minutes after Kaplan warned his lawyer she was risking being tossed into jail earlier than summations started within the case.

“The record will reflect that Mr. Trump just rose and walked out of the courtroom,” stated Judge Lewis Kaplan.

Trump returned about an hour later after Carroll’s lawyer completed her summation, and simply earlier than his lawyer started her closing argument.

Carroll in a 2019 New York journal article wrote that within the mid-1990s, Trump had raped her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman division retailer on Fifth Avenue, simply up the road from the Trump Tower, the place he lived and labored.

Trump denied her allegation on the time, and stated she had made it up.

Another Manhattan federal courtroom jury final 12 months discovered he had sexually abused Carroll within the assault, and had defamed her in statements he made in late 2022 denying her claims.

Kaplan dominated later in 2023 that that jury’s verdict meant that jurors within the present trial must settle for as legally established that Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll, and defamed her in his 2022 statements.

Trump on Friday posted a number of social media messages attacking Kaplan for rulings within the case, accusing the decide of getting “absolute hatred of Donald J. Trump (ME!).” Trump’s Truth social account posted 14 occasions about Carroll when he was within the courtroom.

In her closing argument, Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan, who shouldn’t be associated to the decide, requested jurors to impose punitive damages on Trump for refusing to cease defaming Carroll even after a jury final 12 months held him responsible for doing so and ordered him to pay her $5 million.

Trump’s feedback have sparked demise threats and cruel emails and tweets directed at Carroll, the lawyer stated.

“The dollar amount has to be very large,” Roberta Kaplan stated. “It is at least as much and probably much more than the $12 million” that the lawyer famous an professional witness had testified it might price to restore Carroll’s fame after Trump accused her of investing her declare.

“Last trial, Donald J. Trump didn’t even bother to show up, but this trial where it is about damages he has been sure to be here and the one thing he cares about his money,” Kaplan stated. “He doesn’t care about the law or truth but does care about money and your decision on punitive damages is the only hope that he stops.”

“How much will it take to make him stop? You cost him lots and lots of money,” she stated.

Trump “is worth billions of dollars he said that under oath, he could pay a million dollars a day for ten years and still have money in the bank,” Kaplan stated. “When you begin deliberations I encourage you to step back and think of bigger picture, a former president of the United States who sexually assaulted, defamed and continues to defame.”

Earlier, Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba, who had already irked Judge Kaplan for displaying up late in courtroom, angered him when she persevered in arguing that protection legal professionals ought to be capable of present a slide to jurors throughout their summation that represented some tweets associated to Carroll.

“You are not going to use a slide to represent how many tweets there were, you are not using that slide, period,” Judge Kaplan stated.

When Habba stated, “I need to make a record,” referring to placing her argument on the document, the decide issued his warning.

“You are on the verge of spending time in the lockup, now sit down!,” the decide informed Habba.

Kaplan snapped at Habba a number of extra occasions throughout her closing argument, at one level telling her that if she continued urgent a specific level “there will be consequences.”

In her summation, Habba stated that Carroll “has failed to show she is entitled to any damages at all.”

“It is Ms. Carroll’s burden is not President Trump’s to prove that his statements caused harm and she failed to meet that burden, it is common sense,” Habba stated.

The lawyer additionally prompt that Carroll had made up her claims of receiving “thousands of threats.”

Carroll had testified that she deleted most of these threats, making them unavailable as proof.

“Either Ms. Carroll is lying to you and those messages never existed in the first place or she deleted them and wants you to rely on them and guess what they are not here and she has to give them to you to support her claim for damages and that is a fact,” Habba stated.

Habba additionally stated that not solely did Carroll “not suffer any emotional harm” after publishing her declare in 2019 about Trump raping her “she was happier than ever.”

“She told Vanity Fair [magazine] that the support she received walking down the streets was heartwarming,” Habba stated. “One of the most carefree and happy times of her life that she was in a cocoon of love … does this sound like someone whose world has come crashing down, who can’t sleep?”

“She was enjoying the newfound attention she was receiving,” the lawyer stated.

Before the arguments started and jurors entered the courtroom, the decide issued a warning.

“During closing arguments, no one is to say anything other than opposing counsel,” stated Kaplan. “There are to be no interruptions or audible comments by anyone else and that will apply when I charge the jury and that will apply to counsel then as well.”

Carroll’s legal professionals have complained through the trial about Trump making feedback that had been audible to jurors whereas sitting together with his attorneys on the protection desk.

The nine-member jury is predicted to start deliberations later Friday after a number of hours of summations by Carroll’s lawyer and Trump’s lawyer, and directions from the decide.

Last 12 months she received a $5 million judgment in opposition to him on the first trial. Trump is interesting that verdict.

Kaplan beforehand dominated that due to the prior verdict, there was no authorized query that Trump defamed Carroll. That ruling left solely the query of financial damages remaining for the jury.

Trump throughout his very temporary testimony within the trial Thursday stated of Carrol’s declare, “I consider it a false accusation.”

Kaplan struck that testimony, in mild of the prior jury’s verdict which discovered he had sexually abused Carroll.

Trump earlier this week defeated former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley within the Republican presidential major in New Hampshire. Last week, he received the Iowa GOP caucuses.

This is growing information. Check again for updates.