Republished with permission from Lucian K. Truscott IV
A Manhattan jury leveled a huge verdict against Donald Trump in the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial today after just over three hours of deliberation. The jury awarded Carroll $18.3 million in compensatory damages for emotional harm to her and the injuries Trump inflicted on Carroll’s reputation, and $65 million in punitive damages for acting maliciously in calling Carroll a liar and denying that he raped her. The jury award was more than eight times what Carroll had asked for. The New York Times reported that journalists in a nearby press room gasped when the full amount of the jury award was read out loud.
During summations today by Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s lawyer, and Alina Habba, Trump’s attorney, Trump’s Truth Social account made 16 posts in 15 minutes, all of them attacking either the judge in the case, Lewis Kaplan, or the plaintiff, E. Jean Carroll. After the trial, Trump put up a post calling the verdict “Absolutely ridiculous!” He charged, “They have taken away all First Amendment Rights” and said he would appeal. He also claimed, in all caps, “THIS IS NOT AMERICA!”
Trump is awaiting another verdict in a state courtroom in a lawsuit filed against him and his company for lying on applications for bank loans and insurance policies over a ten year period. The judge in that case, Arthur Engoron, has said he hopes to issue a verdict by the end of this month. New York Attorney General Leticia James has asked for a penalty of $370 million to be levied against Trump and his company, and for both Trump and the Trump Organization to be banned from doing business in the state of New York.
Reporters for the Washington Post described “a long emotional embrace” between Carroll and her lawyer after the verdict was read and noted, “There was audible crying from the plaintiff’s table.”
No wonder. E. Jean Carroll has endured almost five years of hell at the hands of this soulless monster. Even if she never collects a cent from the worthless bum, she has shown the world who he is, what he did, and how he behaves when a woman stands up to him. There should be some sort of civil award for truth-telling and courage for E. Jean Carroll. She certainly deserves it.
Lucian K. Truscott IV
Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist and screenwriter. He has covered stories such as Watergate, the Stonewall riots and wars in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels and several unsuccessful motion pictures. He has three children, lives in rural Pennsylvania and spends his time Worrying About the State of Our Nation and madly scribbling in a so-far fruitless attempt to Make Things Better.
