Trump's comments about E. Jean Carroll caused up to $12.1 million in reputational damage, expert tells jury

It could cost as much as $12.1 million to repair the harm to the writer E. Jean Carroll's reputation caused by a pair of defamatory statements former President Donald Trump made in 2019, a professor told a federal jury in New York on Thursday.

Thursday's testimony by Northwestern University professor Ashlee Humphreys sought to quantify how many people saw and believed two statements Trump made denying he sexually assaulted, or had ever even met, Carroll. The judge overseeing Carroll's suit against Trump has already determined the statements were defamatory, and the jury is tasked with determining what damages she should be awarded. A separate jury last year found Trump liable for sexual abuse and another defamatory statement.

Trump attended the first two days of the damages trial, but was not in the courtroom Thursday as Humphreys described how she quantified the harm done to Carroll. The former president was in Florida, attending his mother-in-law's funeral.