Former US President Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower for Manhattan federal court to attend his defamation trial in New York on January 26, 2024.
Charly Triballeau | AFP | Getty Images
Closing arguments began Friday at the New York federal court trial where a jury will determine how much former President Donald Trump owes E. Jean Carroll in monetary damages for defaming him when she accused him of raping her in the mid-1990s.
Before the arguments began, the judge issued a warning.
“During closing arguments no one is to say anything other than opposing counsel,” said Judge Lewis Kaplan. “There are to be no interruptions or audible comments by anyone else and that will apply when I charge the jury and that will apply to counsel then as well.”
The nine-member jury is expected to begin deliberations later Friday after several hours of summations by Carroll’s lawyer and Trump’s attorney, and instructions from the judge.
Carroll, 80, is seeking at least $10 million from Trump. Both of them were at the court in Manhattan for the closing arguments.
Last year she won a $5 million judgment against him at a different, but related trial. Trump is appealing that verdict.
E. Jean Carroll arrives at Manhattan federal court in New York as her defamation suit against Donald Trump continues on January 26, 2024 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
In that prior case, jurors ruled that the 78-year-old Trump was liable for sexually abusing the writer in the attack at a New York department store, and for defaming her in disparaging statements he made in 2022 while denying her allegation.
The current trial is dealing with different, but similar statements Trump made as president about Carroll in 2019, after she first went public with her account of the attack in a New York magazine article.
Kaplan previously ruled that because of the prior verdict, there was no legal question that Trump defamed Carroll. That ruling left only the question of monetary damages remaining for the jury.
Trump during his very brief testimony in the trial Thursday said of Carrol’s claim, “I consider it a false accusation.”
Kaplan struck that testimony, in light of the prior jury’s verdict which found he had sexually abused Carroll.
Trump earlier this week defeated former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley in the Republican presidential primary in New Hampshire. Last week, he won the Iowa GOP caucuses.
This is developing news. Check back for updates.
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