Trump ordered to pay E. Jean Carroll $83.3M in defamation damages trial

NEW YORK — A federal court jury awarded a total of $83.3 million in damages to E. Jean Carroll for defamatory comments Donald Trump made about her as president in 2019, remarks attacking her character that kicked off years of threats and harassment from the former president’s supporters. Most of the award involved $65 million in punitive damages after jurors concluded that Trump acted spitefully and wantonly toward Carroll after she accused him of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s. Jurors also awarded a combined $18.3 million in compensatory damages. Trump won the Republican presidential primary in New Hampshire earlier this week. He also recently won the Iowa caucuses, even as he faces multiple lawsuits and four criminal indictments. In May, a civil jury in New York found that Trump sexually abused and defamed Carroll, and awarded her a combined $5 million in damages, a finding Trump has appealed. The former president said he will appeal the latest verdict as well.