The judge presiding over the defamation trial between writer E Jean Carroll and former president Donald Trump recommended that the jurors withhold their identities when the decision was read.
The jurors, who were intentionally kept anonymous because of the high-profile nature of the case, can now go by name if they so choose after the two-week trial.
“My advice to you is that you never disclose that you were on this jury,” Judge Lewis Kaplan advised them in the courtroom.
Judge Kaplan could not state clearly why he was giving the advise, but Trump fans have threatened to kill juries and judges in the past when the former president was sued.
The nine-member jury has been deliberating over the previous two weeks while Ms. Carroll and Mr. Trump have presented their cases to the jury. Following around three hours of deliberations, the jury decided to award Ms. Carroll $83.3 million in damages since Mr. Trump had always denied her allegations that he had sexually attacked her in a department store dressing room during the mid-1990s.
The trial follows a comparable one from the previous year, in which a jury declared Mr. Trump accountable for harassing and defaming Ms. Carroll. The sole purpose of this trial was to determine how much compensation Mr. Trump owed Ms. Carroll.
The jury was composed of two women and seven men, who reached a unanimous verdict on Friday afternoon, awarding Ms Carroll $18.3m in compensatory damages as well as $65m in punitive damages.
These damages are in addition to the previous jury’s decision to award Ms Carroll $5m in compensatory and punitive damages.
Lashing out on Truth Social, Mr Trump said the proceedings were “Absolutely ridiculous!”
“I fully disagree with both verdicts and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party. Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon. They have taken away all First Amendment Rights. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!” he claimed, despite there being no evidence that President Joe Biden has directed the Department of Justice to target Mr Trump.
