10 months ago
NEW YORK — The writer E. Jean Carroll completed her testimony in a civil defamation trial against Donald Trump in Manhattan federal court Thursday, telling jurors that her reputation suffered as a result of defamatory comments he made about her while he was president.
“Yes, I’m more well-known, and I’m hated by a lot more people,” Carroll told jurors.
Carroll is suing Trump for claiming in 2019, after she publicly accused Trump of having raped her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s, that he had never met her and suggesting she was motivated by money.
Though Trump sat in the courtroom during the first two days of the trial, he didn’t attend court on Thursday, instead attending the funeral of his mother-in-law in Florida.
Asked by Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba if Carroll’s social status had been elevated by the attention Carroll received after she accused Trump of rape, Carroll denied that was the case.
“No, my status was lowered. I’m partaking in this trial to bring my old reputation and status back.”
“So you sued Donald Trump to bring your old reputation back?” Habba asked. “Yeah,” Carroll replied.
The trial is the second one between Carroll and Trump. Last year, a jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million in damages after finding he sexually abused her and defamed her with separate comments he made in 2022.
After Carroll finished her testimony Thursday, an expert witness, Ashlee Humphreys, a professor of marketing and communications at Northwestern University, took the witness stand.
Humphreys previously testified in last year’s Carroll trial and in a recent defamation trial in a lawsuit filed by two Georgia election workers who won a $148 million judgment against Rudy Giuliani.
According to Humphreys, the cost to repair Carroll’s reputation due to the effect of Trump’s remarks would be between $7.3 million and $12.1 million.
In the current trial, Carroll is seeking at least $10 million in compensatory damages, plus an unspecified amount in punitive damages.
As a result of Trump’s comments, Humphreys testified, “damage was severe to [Carroll’s] reputation as a journalist, and the costs to repair it were considerable.”
Though Trump has said he may testify in the current trial, he hasn’t yet committed to doing so.
English (US)