As the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial draws to a close on Friday with closing arguments expected to be wrapped up before lunch, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance stated the biggest question to be decided will be how much Donald Trump will have to pay in the way of punitive damages.
With the former president's guilt already having been decided in a previous trial where a jury found him liable for sexually abusing the New York writer, Vance wrote on her Substack platform that the jury could come down hard on the former president and noted a recent and similar case of defamation where former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani was on the receiving end of a massive penalty.
With MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin telling a "Morning Joe" audience on Friday that Carroll attorney Roberta Kaplan will ask the jury to "make it hurt," Vance suggested the Giuliani damage amount could be used as a benchmark.
"The amount of any award of punitive damages will be largely up to the jury. Put all the pieces together and Carroll’s lawyers will argue that given Trump’s ongoing conduct, the jury must award damages in an amount sufficient to catch the attention of a man who says he’s worth billions in order to prevent him from continuing to harm Carroll," she wrote.
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To that point, she added, "Recall that a jury in the District of Columbia recently awarded $148 million against Rudy Giuliani in a defamation case."
"How juries calculate damages in cases like this is unpredictable. Particularly when they are asked to come up with a number for punitives, there is a wide range of possible outcomes. We will have to await their verdict to see where they come out on the numbers," she cautioned.
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