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Trump, Carroll press their cases as defamation trial heads to jury

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Trump, Carroll press their cases as defamation trial heads to jury
© Reuters. E. Jean Carroll walks outside Manhattan Federal Court on the day of the second civil trial, after she accused former U.S. President Donald Trump of raping her decades ago, in New York City, U.S., January 25, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan Mcdermid

By Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Donald Trump should pay the writer E. Jean Carroll “dearly” for defaming her and denying he raped her, likely in the tens of millions of dollars, Carroll’s lawyer told jurors on Friday near the end of a trial.

But a lawyer for the former U.S. president countered that the former Elle magazine advice columnist doesn’t deserve a cent, having enjoyed the attention and suffered neither professional nor emotional harm after Trump branded her a liar.

A seven-man, two-woman jury in federal court in Manhattan is expected to begin deliberations later on Friday, the civil trial’s fifth day.

Carroll, 80, is seeking at least $10 million for Trump’s having defamed her in June 2019, when he was in the White House, by denying her claim that he had raped her in the mid-1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan.

She said Trump’s comments caused her to be subjected to 4-1/2 years of continuous attacks, including death threats.

Trump, 77, accused Carroll of making up the encounter to boost sales of her memoir, and has maintained he had never heard of her.

He has also attacked Carroll during the trial and on the campaign trial, proclaiming her case a “witch hunt” and a “con job.”

Another jury last May ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million over a similar October 2022 denial, finding that he had defamed and sexually abused her.

Trump shook his head after U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan told jurors it was an “established” fact that Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll.

‘THIS IS HER LIFE’

Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, urged jurors to punish Trump for persistently lying about her client, and destroying her reputation as a truth-telling journalist.

“We all have to follow the law,” Kaplan said. “Donald Trump, however, acts as if these rules and laws just don’t apply to him.

“This trial is about getting him to stop, once and for all,” she added. “Now is the time to make him pay for it dearly.”

Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, countered that it was the publication of excerpts from Carroll’s memoir in New York magazine that triggered the attacks, not Trump’s denials, which began five hours later.

“It just doesn’t add up,” Habba said. “Even if you believe Ms. Carroll, that she really and truly feared for her safety because of the emails she received, she has not shown what she needs to show, that President Trump was the reason she received them.”

Habba also said Carroll enjoyed her new fame, citing her comments that she felt “buoyant” and “fabulous” and entered a “cocoon of love” from supporters.

“She was happier than ever,” Habba said. “Don’t take my word for it. Just ask E. Jean.”

Trump, a Republican, is seeking to retake the White House in the November election in a likely showdown against Democrat Joe Biden, who beat him in 2020.

The race is expected to be close even though Trump faces 91 felony counts in four criminal indictments, including two cases accusing him of trying to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss.

Trump walked out of the courtroom during Roberta Kaplan’s closing argument, but returned for Habba’s.

He has tried to make his legal travails a campaign asset, calling himself a victim of biased prosecutors and an unfair judicial system.

Carroll’s legal team urged jurors to ignore that.

“This isn’t a campaign rally,” Shawn Crowley, another lawyer for Carroll, said after Habba spoke. “Donald Trump is not the victim. This is her life. Help her take it back.”

‘SWISS CHEESE’

Jurors in the current trial will decide only how much Trump owes Carroll for harming her reputation, and whether to impose punitive damages to stop him from defaming her again.

A damages expert testified that the reputational harm alone was $7.3 million to $12.1 million.

Attorney Roberta Kaplan said an “unusually high” punitive damages award might also be needed to deter Trump, a billionaire.

“While Donald Trump may not care about the law, while he certainly does not care about truth, he does care about money,” she said.

Habba urged jurors to ignore the damages expert, saying her report “has more holes than Swiss cheese.”

On Thursday, Trump spent only four minutes defending himself on the witness stand after Judge Kaplan forbade him and his lawyers from revisiting issues that the first trial had settled.

Trump was allowed to confirm his October 2022 deposition testimony, which jurors had been shown, in which he called Carroll’s claims a “hoax” and said she was “mentally sick.”

Carroll wrote the “Ask E. Jean” column for Elle from 1993 to 2019, and often appeared on such programs as NBC’s “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America.” She said those appearances dried up because of Trump.

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Palantir, Anduril join forces with tech groups to bid for Pentagon contracts, FT reports

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(Reuters) – Data analytics firm Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:) and defense tech company Anduril Industries are in talks with about a dozen competitors to form a consortium that will jointly bid for U.S. government work, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

The consortium, which could announce agreements with other tech groups as early as January, is expected to include SpaceX, OpenAI, autonomous shipbuilder Saronic and artificial intelligence data group Scale AI, the newspaper said, citing several people with knowledge of the matter.

“We are working together to provide a new generation of defence contractors,” a person involved in developing the group told the newspaper.

The consortium will bring together the heft of some of Silicon Valley’s most valuable companies and will leverage their products to provide a more efficient way of supplying the U.S. government with cutting-edge defence and weapons capabilities, the newspaper added.

Palantir, Anduril, OpenAI, Scale AI and Saronic did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. SpaceX could not be immediately reached for a comment.

Reuters reported earlier this month that President-elect Donald Trump’s planned U.S. government efficiency drive involving Elon Musk could lead to more joint projects between big defense contractors and smaller tech firms in areas such as artificial intelligence, drones and uncrewed submarines.

Musk, who was named as a co-leader of a government efficiency initiative in the incoming government, has indicated that Pentagon spending and priorities will be a target of the efficiency push, spreading anxiety at defense heavyweights such as Boeing (NYSE:) , Northrop Grumman (NYSE:) , Lockheed Martin (NYSE:) and General Dynamics (NYSE:) .

Musk and many small defense tech firms have been aligned in criticizing legacy defense programs like Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet while calling for mass production of cheaper AI-powered drones, missiles and submarines.

Such views have given major defense contractors more incentive to partner with emerging defense technology players in these areas.

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Weakened Iran could pursue nuclear weapon, White House’s Sullivan says

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By Simon Lewis (JO:)

(Reuters) -The Biden administration is concerned that a weakened Iran could build a nuclear weapon, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday, adding that he was briefing President-elect Donald Trump’s team on the risk.

Iran has suffered setbacks to its regional influence after Israel’s assaults on its allies, Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, followed by the fall of Iran-aligned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Israeli strikes on Iranian facilities, including missile factories and air defenses, have reduced Tehran’s conventional military capabilities, Sullivan told CNN.

“It’s no wonder there are voices (in Iran) saying, ‘Hey, maybe we need to go for a nuclear weapon right now … Maybe we have to revisit our nuclear doctrine’,” Sullivan said.

Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful, but it has expanded uranium enrichment since Trump, in his 2017-2021 presidential term, pulled out of a deal between Tehran and world powers that put restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activity in exchange for sanctions relief.

Sullivan said that there was a risk that Iran might abandon its promise not to build nuclear weapons.

“It’s a risk we are trying to be vigilant about now. It’s a risk that I’m personally briefing the incoming team on,” Sullivan said, adding that he had also consulted with U.S. ally Israel.

Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, could return to his hardline Iran policy by stepping up sanctions on Iran’s oil industry.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Iranian flag flies in front of the UN office building, housing IAEA headquarters, in Vienna, Austria, May 24, 2021. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner/File Photo

Sullivan said Trump would have an opportunity to pursue diplomacy with Tehran, given Iran’s “weakened state.”

“Maybe he can come around this time, with the situation Iran finds itself in, and actually deliver a nuclear deal that curbs Iran’s nuclear ambitions for the long term,” he said.

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Ukraine says Russian general deliberately targeted Reuters staff in August missile strike

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(Reuters) -Ukraine’s security service has named a Russian general it suspects of ordering a missile strike on a hotel in eastern Ukraine in August and said he acted “with the motive of deliberately killing employees of” Reuters.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said in a statement on Friday that Colonel General Alexei Kim, a deputy chief of Russia’s General Staff, approved the strike that killed Reuters safety adviser Ryan Evans and wounded two of the agency’s journalists on Aug. 24.

In a statement posted on Telegram messenger the SBU said it was notifying Kim in absentia that he was an official suspect in its investigation into the strike on the Sapphire Hotel in Kramatorsk, a step in Ukrainian criminal proceedings that can later lead to charges.

In a separate, 15-page notice of suspicion, in which the SBU set out findings from its investigation, the agency said that the decision to fire the missile was made “with the motive of deliberately killing employees of the international news agency Reuters who were engaged in journalistic activities in Ukraine”.

The document, which was published on the website of the General Prosecutor’s Office on Friday, said that Kim had received intelligence that Reuters staff were staying in Kramatorsk. It added that Kim would have been “fully aware that the individuals were civilians and not participating in the armed conflict”.

The Russian defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the SBU’s findings and has not replied to previous questions about the attack. The Kremlin also did not respond to a request for comment. Kim did not reply to messages sent by Reuters to his mobile telephone seeking comment about the SBU’s statement and whether the strike deliberately targeted Reuters staff.

The SBU did not provide evidence to support its claims, nor say why Russia targeted Reuters. In response to questions from the news agency, the security agency declined to provide further details, saying its criminal investigation was still under way and it was therefore not able to disclose such information.

Reuters has not independently confirmed any of the SBU’s claims.

Reuters said on Friday: “We note the news today from the Ukrainian security services regarding the missile attack on August 24, 2024, on the Sapphire Hotel in Kramatorsk, a civilian target more than 20 km from Russian-occupied territory.”

“The strike had devastating consequences, killing our safety adviser, Ryan Evans, and injuring members of our editorial team. We continue to seek more information about the attack. It is critically important for journalists to be able to report freely and safely,” the statement said.

Reuters declined to comment further on the allegation that its staff were deliberately targeted.

The SBU statement said Kim had been named a suspect under two articles of the Ukrainian criminal code: waging an aggressive war and violating the laws and customs of war.

“It was Kim who signed the directive and gave the combat order to fire on the hotel, where only civilians were staying,” it said.

Evans, a 38-year-old former British soldier who had worked as a safety adviser for Reuters since 2022, was killed instantly in the strike.

The SBU statement gave some details about how the strike had occurred, according to its investigation.

“To carry out the attack, the Russian colonel general involved one of his subordinate missile forces units,” the Ukrainian agency said, adding that the strike was carried out with an Iskander-M ballistic missile.

The SBU did not identify the specific unit.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Reuters safety advisor Ryan Evans holds a cat during a news assignment, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, during intense shelling in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, December 26, 2022. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo

Ivan Lyubysh-Kirdey, a videographer for the news agency who was in a room across the corridor, was seriously wounded. Kyiv-based text correspondent Dan Peleschuk was also injured.

The remaining three members of the Reuters team escaped with minor cuts and scratches.

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