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By Sean O'Driscoll
Senior Crime and Courts Reporter
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Donald Trump is making a "meritless" claim that he didn't get a fair trial in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case, Carroll's lawyer has told a court.
"Carroll presented overwhelming evidence in support of her case. Trump took the stand for less than three minutes. And the jury returned a verdict entirely in favor of Carroll, awarding her $83.3 million in damages," Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, stated in court filing on Tuesday.
In May 2023, Carroll was awarded $5 million for sexual assault and defamation. The jury accepted Carroll's testimony that Trump sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and then defamed her in comments when she filed a case against him.
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In January, a jury awarded her $83.3 million in damages for other comments he made about her.
Trump's lawyers are asking the trial judge to set aside the January verdict or else greatly reduce the amount the jury awarded.
"Trump seeks to set that verdict aside, or, at a minimum, reduce the amount of money he now owes Carroll. His arguments are meritless," Roberta Kaplan states in her filing.
Kaplan added that the punitive damages awarded were not excessive. "Quite the opposite. During the trial itself, the jury heard with their own ears and saw with their own eyes exactly how Trump has continued to defame Carroll," Kaplan wrote, noting that, mid-trial, Trump promised to defame her 'a thousand times.'
"And the jury watched Trump carry out this promise in real-time, treating the courtroom like a campaign event," Kaplan wrote.
She cited a Newsweek article "Donald Trump Goes on E. Jean Carroll Posting Binge", among other articles, to show that Trump continued to write about Carroll on social media during and after the trial.
Newsweek sought email comment from Kaplan and from Trump's attorney on Wednesday.
Kaplan also notes that one of Carroll's attorneys objected to Trump's loud comments from the public seats during Carroll's testimony.
She quoted directly from the attorney's objections during the trial: "Mr. Trump has been sitting at the back table and has been loudly saying things throughout Ms. Carroll's testimony, including things that Ms. Carroll is saying are false and noting that she seems to have now gotten her memory back. It's loud enough for us sitting up here to hear it. I assume it's loud enough for the jury to hear it."
Kaplan also noted that, after a short recess, the Court asked Trump to take "special care to keep his voice down when he's conferring with counsel so that the jury does not overhear it."
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