Jury orders Trump to pay $83 mln for sex assault defamation

A jury in New York ordered former U.S. president and 2024 candidate Donald Trump on Friday to pay $83.3 million to compensate the writer E. Jean Carroll, whom he was found to have sexually assaulted and defamed.

The civil order, which prompted an audible gasp in the federal court, far exceeds the more than $10 million in damages for defamation that Carroll had sought.

Trump lashed out almost immediately, calling the verdict "ridiculous" in a statement and promising to appeal.

The jury reached its decision after slightly less than three hours of deliberations.

Trump had been in court earlier, storming out at one point but subsequently returning for closing arguments. He was not in court when the level of compensatory and punitive damages were read out by a court clerk.

"This is a great victory for every woman who stands up when she's been knocked down, and a huge defeat for every bully who has tried to keep a woman down," Carroll said in a statement.

A juror exchanged a smile with Carroll as the nine men and women left the courtroom after the judge encouraged them to protect their privacy.

"It's clear to me... you paid attention," Judge Lewis Kaplan told the jury following the verdict.

The order was comprised of $65 million in punitive damages after the jury found Trump acted maliciously in his many public comments about Carroll, $7.3 million in compensatory damages and $11 million for a reputational repair program.

"I was not surprised (by the award) partly because his egregious misbehavior during the trial could actually have alienated the jury," said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law.

"(Trump) is unlikely to prevail on appeal, because the (appeal) judges have...