LAST UPDATE | 26 Jan 2024

FORMER US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has been ordered to pay over $83 million in damages for defamation to writer E. Jean Carroll.

The case, heard by a New York federal court, centred on Carroll’s claim that Trump defamed her after she accused him of sexually abusing her.

Carroll made the accusation in a memoir, saying that Trump sexually abused her in 1996 in a dressing room in Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury department store in Manhattan.

Trump, who denied the accusations, made multiple statements in recent years casting aspersions on Carroll’s character.

The statements in question in this case were made in 2019 while he was president.

Carroll’s lawyers had sought over $10 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

Trump’s attorney argued against awarding damages, suggesting Carroll’s association with Trump had brought her fame and that death threats she received could not be blamed on Trump’s statements.

A previous New York jury awarded Carroll $5 million after finding that Trump sexually abused her at the store and then defamed her in October 2022 statements. Trump did not attend that trial.

Additional reporting by Press Association and AFP