A jury began deliberations on Friday in the defamation trial against former president Donald Trump, deciding whether he owes writer E Jean Carroll additional millions after a jury last year concluded that he sexually abused her in 1996.
The jury, which is anonymous, began its work after closing arguments punctuated by Mr Trump’s dramatic exit from the courtroom as one of Ms Carroll’s lawyers spoke.
He later returned as his lawyer defended him over statements he made while president in June 2019, and he remained until deliberations began.
Ms Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, asked jurors to award 24 million US dollars (£18.8 million) in compensatory damages and much more in punitive damages.
Mr Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, said Mr Trump told the truth when he refuted her claims.
She said Ms Carroll’s association with Mr Trump had given her the fame she craved and that death threats she received cannot be blamed on his remarks.
The jury, consisting of seven men and two women, is only deciding damages because it has been told to accept as true the findings of another jury that last May awarded Carroll 5.0 million dollars (£3.93 million) after concluding Mr Trump sexually abused Ms Carroll in the changing room of a luxury Manhattan department store.
It also found that he defamed her in 2022 by claiming she made up the allegation to sell a memoir.
The current jury is deciding what damages, if any, Mr Trump owes for two statements he made in June 2019 while he was president after Ms Carroll made her accusation.
Rather than turn away from the allegation, Mr Trump has used the trial to fund-raise for his presidential campaign, telling supporters in a social media post: “They aren’t after me. They’re after you, I’m just in the way.”
Ms Kaplan was only a few minutes into a closing that lasted more than an hour in Manhattan federal court on Friday when Mr Trump suddenly rose from his seat at the defence table and walked toward the exit, pausing to scan the packed courtroom as members of the Secret Service leaped up to follow him out.
The unexpected departure prompted Judge Lewis A Kaplan, who is unrelated to Ms Carroll’s attorney, to speak up, briefly interrupting the closing argument to note: “The record will reflect that Mr. Trump just rose and walked out of the courtroom.”
The walkout came only minutes after the judge, without the jury present, threatened to send Ms Habba to jail for continuing to talk when he told her to stop.
“You are on the verge of spending some time in the lock-up. Now sit down,” the judge told Ms Habba, who immediately complied.
Later, Mr Trump returned to the courtroom to hear Ms Habba argue that he should not be made to pay Carroll for comments that set off hate messages from strangers.
The final remarks from the lawyers come a day after Mr Trump managed to sneak past a federal judge’s rules severely limiting what he could say during his turn on the witness stand, which wound up lasting just three minutes.
He left fuming that he had not been given an opportunity to refute Carroll’s sexual abuse accusations.
During her closing, Ms Kaplan told jurors that the current case was not about a sexual assault.
“We had that case,” she said, referencing the first trial. “That’s why Donald Trump’s testimony was so short yesterday. He doesn’t get a do-over this time.”
