Former President Donald Trump exited a Manhattan courtroom in a huff on Friday as an attorney for writer E. Jean Carroll made her closing arguments in a defamation case against him.
Trump, according to multiple reports, stormed out of the room on the final day of the trial just as Carroll’s attorney said Trump believes laws “don’t apply to him.” Trump returned an hour later, according to NBC.
A jury is set to determine as early as Friday what damages the former president owes, if any, to Carroll for claims he made about her when she first went public in 2019 with a decades-old rape allegation.
Carroll, a former longtime Elle columnist, alleged through a memoir published in the summer of 2019 that Trump raped her in a dressing room of a Manhattan department store during a brief encounter one night in 1995 or 1996.
Carroll testified that after receiving advice from the prominent lawyer and vocal Trump critic George Conway at a party in late 2019, after her book came out, she decided to bring a defamation suit against Trump.
Trump, who was then president, said in 2019 of Carroll, “I’ve never met this person in my life,” and, “She’s not my type.” He also accused her of fabricating the allegation to boost her book sales.
“She is trying to sell a new book — that should indicate her motivation. It should be sold in the fiction section,” Trump said.
These remarks were among several Carroll cited in her initial lawsuit, which this trial is examining. She alleged in her complaint at the time that Trump’s remarks were false and that they had caused her to “suffer reputational, emotional, and professional harm.”
In a subsequent lawsuit brought by Carroll, a jury determined last year that Trump sexually assaulted Carroll but did not rape her. The jury also found that Trump defamed her in 2022. Carroll was awarded $5 million during that trial.
This second trial is strictly intended to determine any damages Trump owes for defaming Carroll in 2019. Judge Lewis Kaplan found that Trump’s 2019 claims were similar in nature to the ones a jury had already deemed defamatory and that Trump was therefore already liable for defaming her again.
Carroll’s attorney said during her closing arguments, per the Messenger, that this time around, Carroll should be awarded a minimum of $12 million in damages.
Trump has continued to deny Carroll’s claims against him, calling the trial a “False Accusation Case” on social media Friday morning as closing arguments were underway.
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“[Kaplan] made us have two Trials on the same Hoax,” Trump wrote. “The Courts are totally stacked against me, have never been used against a Political Opponent, like this, but in the end, we will win it all, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
The jury began deliberating shortly after 1:30 p.m. on Friday, and a verdict could come anytime in the coming hours or days.
