Former President Donald Trump vowed to appeal Friday’s verdict in his defamation case against E. Jean Carroll, in which he was ordered to pay the consulting columnist $83.3 million in damages.
“Absolutely ridiculous!” Trump criticized Truth Social. “I strongly disagree with both verdicts and will appeal this entire Biden-led witch hunt focused on me and the Republican Party. “Our legal system is out of control and is being used as a political weapon.”
“They have taken away all of his First Amendment rights,” he continued. “THIS IS NOT AMERICA!”
The 45th president, 77, was ordered to pay $65 million in punitive damages, $11 in reputational damages and another $7.3 million in emotional damages, a jury ruled in federal court in Manhattan.
Trump had already left the courtroom when the jury’s verdict was announced.
His lawyer Alina Habba also denounced the sentence as he left the court.
“Don’t get it twisted: we are seeing a violation of our justice system, ladies and gentlemen,” he told reporters.
Habba said Judge Lewis Kaplan decided before the trial began “that we were not allowed to present each and every defense that President Trump had in front of the jury.”
Donald Trump was ordered to pay columnist E. Jean Carroll $83 million on Friday. REUTERS
E. Jean Carroll was awarded $5 million in May after a jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting her. William Farrington
Trump was previously ordered to pay Carroll, 80, $5 million in May after a jury found him responsible for sexually assaulting her inside a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room in 1996.
He penetrated Carroll “forcibly and without consent” with his fingers, according to court records. Trump was acquitted of Carroll’s claim that he raped her.
When Carroll went public with the allegations in 2019, Trump immediately dismissed her claims as a “hoax” and criticized her as a “wackpot.” She received death threats as a result of her attacks.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn