Donald Trump has been ordered to pay $83.3million writer E. Jean Carroll in the defamation trial followed by another jury that last year concluded he sexually abused her in 1996 and defamed her in 2022.
The jury began deliberating on Friday afternoon after closing arguments punctuated by Trump’s dramatic exit from the courtroom as a Carroll lawyer spoke.
He later returned as his lawyer defended him over statements he made while president in June 2019, and he remained until deliberations began shortly before 2 p.m.
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, asked jurors to award $24 million in compensatory damages and much more in punitive damages.
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Rather than turn away from the allegation, Trump has used the trial to fund-raise for his presidential campaign, telling supporters in a social media post: “They aren’t after me. They’re after you, I’m just in the way!”
Kaplan was only a few minutes into a closing that lasted more than an hour in Manhattan federal court Friday when Trump suddenly rose from his seat at the defense table and walked toward the exit, pausing to scan the packed courtroom as members of the Secret Service leaped up to follow him out.
The unexpected departure prompted Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who is unrelated to Carroll’s attorney, to speak up, briefly interrupting the closing argument to note: “The record will reflect that Mr. Trump just rose and walked out of the courtroom.”
In a rebuttal argument, Carroll attorney Shawn Crowley recalled Trump’s courtroom exit for the jury, highlighting it as an example of how Trump thinks he “gets to do whatever he wants.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, this isn’t a campaign rally,” she said.
