Donald Trump walked out of the courtroom on Friday as a lawyer for E. Jean Carroll offered her closing argument to convince jurors that Trump should pay Carroll millions of dollars for damaging her reputation by denying he raped her.
Carroll, 80, is seeking at least $10 million over Trump's June 2019 denials, when he was president, that he had raped her in the mid-1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan.
Trump, 77, accused Carroll of making up the encounter to boost sales of her memoir.
But another jury last May ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million over a similar denial in October 2022, finding that Trump had defamed and sexually abused her.
Because that verdict is binding for the current trial, the seven-man, two-woman jury need decide only how much Trump owes Carroll for harming her reputation, and whether to impose punitive damages to keep Trump from defaming her again.
Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer for Carroll, told jurors in her closing statement that Trump's denials have continued throughout the trial.
"This case is also about punishing Donald Trump for what he has done, and what he continues to do," she said. "This trial is about getting him to stop, once and for all."
A lawyer for Trump will offer a closing argument later.
Trump has attended most of the trial, which is in its fifth day.
