Washington
Former President Donald Trump was sentenced this Friday (26) by a jury in New York to pay $83.3 million (R410 million) to the journalist E. Jean Carroll. She accuses him of raping her in a department store in the 1990s and then defaming her for years by denying the crime.
A jury had already found the Republican guilty of sexual abuse and defamation in a separate case. In this case, Judge Lewis Kaplan had also already convicted Trump of defamation, pending the determination of the amount of compensation to be paid to Carroll, which was determined by a jury this Friday.
Trump denies the allegations, which he says are a hoax, and has said he will appeal the decision. He says he never met the author in person and once claimed the claim couldn't be true because Carroll wasn't his “type.”
In his testimony in court, the now 80yearold journalist explained that the businessman's supporters, driven by him, had begun to attack not only her, but also her reputation as a columnist for Elle magazine on social media.
Carroll claims Trump raped her in the dressing rooms of the luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman in New York. The alleged crime is timebarred, but a recent state law allows adult victims of sex crimes to file lawsuits in civil court, which Carroll did in 2019. Since the case was dealt with in this context and not in criminal law, there is no prison sentence for Trump.
The businessman is virtually singlehandedly leading the Republican primary, and all indications are that he will be the party's nominee for the presidential election this November. At the same time, he has to deal with four criminal and other civil proceedings. This is the case with the lawsuit filed by Carroll, which concluded this Friday, and with a second in which the New York prosecutor's office accuses him of fraud to artificially inflate his assets and obtain business advantages.
Of the $83.3 million, $65 million (R$320 million) is punitive damages for the defendant, known in English as “punitive damages,” due to Trump’s repeated attacks on the writer. Another $18.3 million (R$90 million) is compensation for the damage suffered.
Carroll's lawyer Roberta Kaplan had asked that her client be compensated at least US$24 million (R118 million), plus “punitive damages”, which she said were likely to be high due to Carroll's assets and Trump, as well as the persistent attacks of the former president.
One of Kaplan's strategies was to use videos in which Trump flaunted his wealth. “The law states that in making that assessment, one can take into account both Donald Trump's assets and his ongoing malicious and malicious conduct. Now it’s time to make him pay, and pay dearly,” the attorney told the jury in her final argument.
According to the New York Times, at that moment Trump left the dock and walked out of court, a breach of decorum. He returned about 75 minutes later to hear his defense's closing argument and left court shortly before the verdict was announced.
Trump's defense strategy was to characterize Carroll as a woman seeking media projection and whose fame benefited from Trump's statements in recent years. One of the businessman's lawyers, Alina Habba, also stated that he has no control over social media and that the attacks the journalist received could therefore not be attributed to the former president.
This is the second time the businessman has been asked to compensate Carroll. In May last year, another jury had already decided that he should pay US$5 million (R25 million) for sexually abusing her and defaming her on social media.
“Absolutely ridiculous! I strongly disagree with both sentences and will appeal the entire coordinated witch hunt.” [Joe] Biden to me and the Republican Party. Our legal system is out of control and is being used as a political weapon. They took away all First Amendment rights. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!” said Trump in a post on his social network Truth after the decision.