9 months ago
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Last Friday, a jury awarded E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million. Carroll sued Donald Trump, decades after he raped her, and during a years-long campaign in which Trump defamed her. Even during the civil trial, Trump was still smearing her and defaming her on Truth Social. Worse yet, Trump’s unhinged supporters are targeting Carroll too. I was so pleased for Carroll’s victory but I didn’t have much confidence that she would ever get that money. It looks like her lawyer is on top of it though! E. Jean and her lawyer appeared on Good Morning America on Monday and there are some great quotes in here:
Three days after a jury awarded her over $83 million for Donald Trump’s repeated defamatory statements, columnist E. Jean Carroll vowed to use the money on “something Donald Trump hates.”
“If it’ll cause him pain for me to give money to certain things, that’s my intent,” Carroll told George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America,” suggesting she would create a “fund for the women who have been sexually assaulted by Donald Trump.”
Sitting feet from Trump in court for five days, Carroll described that her fears leading up to the trial about interacting with the former president washed away as soon as the trial began. “It was like he was like nothing, like an emperor without clothes,” Carroll said. “All my terror leading up to it, and there he is. He’s just something in a suit.”
Trump’s in-person attendance at the trial – after missing last year’s trial – briefly interrupted the proceedings, including when the former president muttered defamatory statements in earshot of the jury or walked out during the closing statement delivered by Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan. Kaplan, however, said Trump’s behavior only validated the central thesis of her case that Trump is “a bully who can’t follow the rules.”
“I definitely thought we got a few more million dollars immediately,” Kaplan said about Trump walking out of court during her closing statement. “I was like, well, that’s worth about $10 million.”
A few hours after Trump stormed out of court, the jury delivered their unanimous verdict and $83.3 million award. As the jury left the courtroom, Carroll and her lawyers held hands, exchanging smiles with some of the jurors. “It made me burst into tears because they met my eyes for the first time,” Carroll said about seeing the jurors.
Kaplan added that she is confident they will be able to collect the $83.3 million, explaining that Trump could either pay a bond or deposit the money in full until he appeals. “I’m pretty confident one way or the other. We might not get it right away. But one way or the other, he owns a lot of real estate. It can be sold. We will collect the judgment,” Kaplan said.
While Trump has not mentioned Carroll by name in the days since the verdict, Carroll said that she is not confident the former president will refrain from defaming her, and her lawyer said “all options are on the table” if Trump decides to defame her client again.
“One way or the other, he owns a lot of real estate. It can be sold.” As I said weeks ago, I want E. Jean Carroll to own g–damn Trump Tower after all of this. She can turn it into a center for immigration resources. She can turn it into a Planned Parenthood. While I love that she’s committed to giving the money away, I hope she keeps some of it for security, because she’s absolutely going to need it. Anyway, I love her lawyer’s confidence about getting the money! And it’s true, and it’s been true – the emperor has no clothes. He’s not some mastermind – he’s a racist moron and a serial sexual predator.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.
