Judge Warns Trump Jurors Against Disclosing Identities

The Manhattan jury who found Donald Trump liable in the defamation and battery lawsuit brought against him by E. Jean Carroll was dismissed on Tuesday with a final warning from their presiding judge about revealing their identities.

The nine-person jury reached a mixed verdict after less than three hours of deliberations, finding that Trump was liable for sexual abuse and had defamed Carroll when he called her allegations a "con job" in a social media post in October 2022. Trump was not found liable for rape, although Carroll claimed that the former president had raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in New York City in the mid-1990s.

The former Elle columnist was awarded $5 million in total damages by the jury, including $2 million in compensatory damages for her battery claim against Trump.

New York Judge Lewis Kaplan told the jury before dismissing them on Tuesday that they were now free to identify themselves to the public at their own discretion—but strongly advised against it.

"My advice to you is not to identify yourself," Kaplan said, according to a report from CNN. "Not now and not for a long time.

"If you're one who elects to speak to others and to identify yourselves to others, I direct you not to identify anyone else who sat on this jury," he continued. "Each of you owes that to the other whatever you decide for yourself."

Throughout the trial, Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina repeatedly addressed that his client may evoke "strong feelings" from the public and had urged the jury to not let their opinions play into their final vote.

"People have very strong feelings about Donald Trump," he said in his opening statements last month. "You can hate Donald Trump, it's okay. There's a time and a secret place for that. It's called a ballot box. But not here in the court of law."

This is a developing story. It will be updated as information becomes available.