The former American president, Donald Trump is convicted of defamation.
He will now pay $83 million in damages to author E Jean Carroll, reports Reuters.
Trump has previously been found guilty in a civil case for sexually assaulting Caroll. The judge then decided that the previous sentence should be transferred to the defamation trial, where he was sentenced on Friday to pay 83 million dollars in damages.
The jury’s deliberations took less than three hours before the verdict could be announced. Trump was convicted for statements he made as president in 2019, when he, among other things, denied Carroll’s allegations of sexual abuse, reports CNN.
When the verdict was read, Trump had already left the courtroom.
Among other things, Trump stormed out in the middle of the trial. The incident occurred when author E Jean Carroll’s lawyer was making his closing arguments. The judge interrupted the lawyer and wrote in the minutes that Trump “just got up and walked out of the courtroom”, AP reports.
Donald Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, should also have been reprimanded by the judge during the trial.
“You are about to spend time in jail, now sit down,” the judge told Trump’s lawyer.