Right after Donald Trump won the New Hampshire primary last week, he flew to New York to testify in the civil case brought against him by E. Jean Carroll. Last May, a civil court found that Trump had, in fact, raped E. Jean in a dressing room at Bergdorf’s, and not only that, Trump had defamed her repeatedly after she told her story. Back in May, E. Jean was awarded $5 million. Soon after, Trump continued to defame her in interviews and on social media. Another trial was set to extend the defamation part of E. Jean’s case. Trump was called in to testify and he succeeded at completely alienating the judge and jury, loudly muttering “con job” and “witch hunt” during the proceedings, arguing with the judge and, worse yet, continuing to attack and defame E. Jean on Truth Social (his Nazi social media). Well, it took less than three hours for the jury to reach their decision: E. Jean Carroll has been awarded $83.3 million.

Former President Donald J. Trump was ordered by a Manhattan jury on Friday to pay $83.3 million to the writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her in 2019 after she accused him of a decades-old rape, attacks he continued in social media posts, at news conferences and even in the midst of the trial itself.

Ms. Carroll’s lawyers had argued that a large award was necessary to stop Mr. Trump from continuing to attack her. After less than three hours of deliberation, the jury responded by awarding Ms. Carroll $65 million in punitive damages, finding that Mr. Trump had acted with malice. On one recent day, he made more than 40 derisive posts about Ms. Carroll on his Truth Social website.

On Friday, Mr. Trump had already left the courtroom for the day when the judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, called in the nine-member jury shortly after 4:30 p.m., warning the lawyers, “We will have no outbursts.” The verdict was delivered nine minutes later to utter silence in the courtroom.

In addition to the $65 million, jurors awarded Ms. Carroll $18.3 million in compensatory damages for her suffering. Mr. Trump’s lawyers slumped in their seats as the dollar figures were read aloud. The jury was dismissed, and Ms. Carroll, 80, embraced her lawyers. Minutes later, she walked out of the courthouse arm in arm with her legal team, beaming for the cameras.

“This is a great victory for every woman who stands up when she’s been knocked down and a huge defeat for every bully who has tried to keep a woman down,” Ms. Carroll said in a statement, thanking her lawyers effusively.

[From The NY Times]

Trump’s lawyers are already saying that they’ll appeal, which means it will be a while before E. Jean gets her money. Besides, I’m pretty sure Trump does not have that money, anywhere. It would be hilarious if the court basically gave E. Jean Carroll possession of Trump Tower or Mar-a-Lago. Come on! Jokes aside, this whole situation is pretty awful for E. Jean. Trump has targeted her so thoroughly, she’s constantly in danger from his lunatic supporters and she’s basically going to need security for the rest of her life.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.