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E. Jean Carroll on the last day of the trial in New York
Photo: John Angelillo / UPI Photo / IMAGO
Author E. Jean Carroll has been awarded more than $80 million in two libel cases against former US President Donald Trump. An unexpectedly large sum. The 80-year-old Carroll was relieved after the second verdict on Friday in New York - and promised to use the money wisely.
Carroll would have every right to use at least a large portion of the money, if not all of it, for himself. After all, the court ruling explicitly broke down how the sum was made up: $7.3 million of the $83.3 million now awarded is compensation for Carroll, and $11 million is compensation for damage to her reputation. In addition, there are five million dollars in damages from the previous proceedings. The remaining $65 million is so-called punitive damages, which are intended to punish the convicted person and deter him from the behavior in the future.
"I won't waste a cent," Carroll told the New York Times the day after the current verdict. “We will do something good with it.” She added that she would now carefully consider how exactly the money would be used.
Trump wants to take action against the verdicts
She probably has the time: Trump and his lawyer have already announced that they will exhaust all legal remedies against the verdict. Even if the ruling were to become final at some point, Trump could try to delay payment. His former lawyer Rudy Giuliani filed for bankruptcy in December following a million-dollar judgment against him. The plaintiffs in the case are now accusing him of using insolvency law to avoid payment.
Carroll told the New York Times that she couldn't predict what Donald Trump would or wouldn't do. However, the two verdicts and the unexpectedly high amount of compensation are already a major victory for women. “We needed this win more than anything,” said Carroll. "After we lost the rights over our own bodies in many states, we have stuck our flag in the ground on this issue." Carroll is referring to the stricter anti-abortion laws in the USA.
Second trial resulted in ten times the requested amount
The current verdict was the 80-year-old US author's second civil case against Trump. The sum exceeds the more than ten million dollars demanded by Carroll many times over - and its size surprised many observers. For the ex-president, against whom several legal proceedings are currently underway, it is one of the clearest legal defeats to date. Carroll's lawyers had argued that only a large sum of money could stop Trump from further verbally attacking the author.
"This is a great victory for every woman who stands up when she is pushed down and a great defeat for every tyrant who has tried to keep a woman down," Carroll said after the decision was announced.
At the end of the first trial in May, a New York jury found it proven that Trump had attacked Carroll in a luxury New York department store in 1996, sexually abused him and later slandered him. The jury then awarded the writer five million dollars (around 4.65 million euros) in compensation. Trump has also appealed this decision.
The 77-year-old Trump is considered the Republicans' most promising candidate in the November presidential election. He is currently dealing with the courts in numerous different cases.
zob/dpa