Marketing expert tells jury Trump's alleged damage to E. Jean Carroll's reputation could cost up to $2.7M

A marketing expert testified on Thursday that former President Trump’s alleged damage to author E. Jean Carroll’s reputation could cost between $368,000 and $2.7 million to repair, according to ABC News.

Carroll, who has accused the former president of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s, is suing for sexual battery over the alleged assault and for defamation over an October 2022 social media post.

In the post on Truth Social, Trump once again denied Carroll’s rape allegations and criticized her appearance.

Northwestern University professor Ashlee Humphreys testified on Thursday that Trump’s post was viewed between 13 and 18 million times, with an estimated 5 million users believing what the former president wrote. Humphreys noted that the post also "appeared widely” in the media.

However, Humphreys acknowledged during cross-examination by Trump’s team that the former president’s denials of the rape allegations were well-known when he posted on Truth Social last October.

"The horse was kind of out of the barn," Trump attorney Perry Brandt said, according to ABC News.

Humphreys’s testimony comes near the end of the civil trial, as attorneys for Carroll and Trump rested their respective cases on Thursday. However, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan gave the former president three days to decide whether to testify at the trial.

While Trump’s attorneys have previously said he would not testify, the former president told reporters in Ireland on Thursday that he would “probably attend” the trial.

“I have to go back for a woman that made a false accusation about me, and I have a judge who is extremely hostile,” Trump said. “And I’m going to go back, and I’m going to confront this.”