Closing arguments in E. Jean Carroll's defamation damages trial against Donald Trump are expected to begin Friday. After that, the jury will determine how much money, if any, the former president must pay Carroll.
To receive money, Carroll must prove he is entitled to damages by a preponderance of the evidence, a standard used in civil cases that is lower than that required in criminal trials.
That standard of evidence was used in Carroll's civil defamation case last year, in which a jury found that Carroll proved that Trump had sexually abused and defamed her by a preponderance of the evidence, but that she failed to prove that Trump had raped her, since that crime is strictly defined by New York criminal laws. Trump has appealed the verdict.
Carroll's case last year, in which he was awarded $5 million for assault and defamation, focused on comments Trump made about Carroll in 2022. The current case concerns Trump's remarks when he was president in 2019. Carroll He is seeking more than $10 million in damages.
After the jury was sworn in, Judge Lewis Kaplan compared the preponderance standard in the case to a scale.
“What preponderance of the evidence means is that the plaintiff must present evidence that, considered in light of all the facts, leads the plaintiff to believe that what the plaintiff claims is more likely to be correct or true than false,” Kaplan said.
“To put it another way, if plaintiff's and defendant's evidence were placed on opposite sides of a metaphorical scale, the plaintiff has the burden of tipping the scale, even slightly, in his favor,” the judge continued. . “If they tip slightly in favor of the plaintiff or a lot in favor of the plaintiff, then the plaintiff has prevailed by a preponderance of the evidence. If they give even a minimal or very favorable tip to the defendant, then the defendant prevails on that issue.”
