As if the jury tacked on another million with each Trump outburst: NYT reporter

Veteran investigative journalist Susanne Craig has spent the past decades following Donald Trump's finances, and she thinks that the New York jury finally managed to shut him up when they handed down the damages amount in the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial.

“They found the price of silence for Donald Trump," Craig told Alex Witt on MSNBC Sunday.

Late Friday, the jury in the Carroll trial passed down $83.3 million in compensatory and punitive damages for Trump's ongoing defamation of Carroll.

Craig wondered if it was due to Trump's behavior in the courtroom.

"I think a lot of it comes to his behavior in the weeks and during the trial, where he continued to defame her while it was going on," said Craig. "It was almost like every time he did it, the jury tacked on another $1 million or $2 million. I think that's where you see the gap. It's just very willful behavior that was going on while that trial was going on."

NBC news reporter Adam Reiss said on Friday that there were two realities during the trial.

"E. Jean Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, telling her story. She went on and on, and he just couldn't handle it. He was so furious he stood up, and stormed out of the courtroom with his secret service agents chasing him," Reiss said in a clip Witt played.

During the trial, he would post more comments defaming Carroll, which he released on Truth Social. Speaking at a rally, Trump continued to trash her. All of it was entered into evidence for the jury to see that despite losing the case, he refused to stop.

"It's interesting because when you mention the difference between the two amounts, the $5 million and the $83 million, that screen says it all," said Craig. "I think that they saw it, and they probably kept calibrating the number up as the week went on. I think so far, it seems like they found a price of silence for Donald Trump because he hasn't weighed back again in attacking Miss Carroll. Not to say he won't, and I'm sure the second he does, there will be another lawsuit filed. But so far, it seems like that's the amount; it's a pretty high amount, even for someone like Donald Trump."

See the panel discussion in the video below or at the link here.

It was as if the jury tacked on another million with each outburst: reporter youtu.be