Judge upholds $83M E. Jean Carroll defamation award against Donald Trump

April 25 (UPI) -- New York federal judge Lewis Kaplan Thursday upheld E. Jean Carroll's $83 million defamation damages award against Donald Trump.

Kaplan said Trump's defamatory attacks on her were malicious and unceasing, and he denied Trump a new trial.

"Mr. Trump's malicious and unceasing attacks on Ms. Carroll were disseminated to more than 100 million people," Kaplan wrote in his ruling. "They included public threats and personal attacks, and they endangered Ms. Carroll's health and safety. The jury was entitled to conclude that Mr. Trump derailed the career, reputation, and emotional well-being of one of America's most successful and prominent advice columnists and authors -- to which she testified repeatedly -- and award her $18.3 million in compensatory damages."

Carroll was awarded $17.3 million damage compensation and $65 million in punitive damages for Trump's 2019 defamation.

Kaplan rejected Trump lawyers' arguments that the money awarded was excessive.

Trump also was found liable in another trial May 2023 for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her in a 2022 social media post.

Kaplan added that the punitive damages passes "constitutional muster."

Kaplan said in his ruling that a jury in a "closely related case" found Trump "forcibly sexually abused plaintiff E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s" and then maliciously defamed her in an October 2022 statement.

And Kaplan noted that in this case, another jury gave Carroll $17.3 million in compensatory and $65 million in punitive damages Trump for defamation while Trump was president on June 21 and 22, 2019.

Kaplan concluded his ruling with "Mr. Trump's argument is entirely without merit both as a matter of law and as a matter of fact for all of the reasons articulated in Ms. Carroll's memorandum of law in opposition to his motion."