Three days after a jury awarded her over $83 million for Donald Trump’s repeated defamatory statements, writer E. Jean Carroll promised to spend the money on “something Donald Trump hates.”
“If it causes him pain for me to give money to certain things, that’s my intent,” Carroll told George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America,” adding she would set up a “fund for the women who have been sexually assaulted by Trump.”
After a two-week trial, a jury ruled in less than three hours on Friday that Trump must pay Carroll more than $83 million in damages to compensate her for two defamatory statements made by the former president in 2019 after she claimed Trump sexually assaulted her in 1996.
Last year, a second jury determined that Trump sexually assaulted and defamed Carroll, paying her $5 million.
Since 2019, Trump has constantly rejected the charge and testified during the five-day defamation trial to back up his assertions. On Friday, he promised to fight the ruling.
Carroll, who sat feet away from Trump in court for five days, said her pre-trial concerns about dealing with the former president vanished as soon as the trial started.
“It was like he was like nothing, like an emperor without clothes,” Carroll went on to say. “All of my fear building up to it, and there he is. He is merely anything in a suit.”
Trump’s in-person participation at the trial, following his absence last year, temporarily disrupted proceedings, including when the former president murmured derogatory words in front of the jury or stormed out during Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan’s closing statement.
However, Kaplan said Trump’s behavior merely supported the primary premise of her case, which is that Trump is “a bully who can’t follow the rules.”
“I definitely thought we got a few more million dollars immediately,” Kaplan said of Trump’s exit from court during her closing address. “I was like, well, that’s worth about $10 million.”
A few hours after Trump stormed out of court, the jury returned a unanimous decision and awarded $83.3 million. Carroll and her lawyers clasped hands as the jury exited the courtroom, exchanging smiles with a few of them.
“I burst into tears because they met my eyes for the first time,” Carroll recalled when she saw the jury.
Kaplan added that she is convinced they will be able to collect the $83.3 million, saying that Trump could either pay a bond or deposit the entire amount until he appeals.
“I’m quite confident either way. We might not receive it straight away. Regardless, he has a large amount of real estate. It can be sold. “We will collect the judgment,” Kaplan stated.
While Trump has not referenced Carroll by name in the days following the verdict, Carroll has stated that she is not convinced the former president will stop defaming her, and her lawyer has stated that “all options are on the table” if Trump chooses to slander her client again.
“If we need to file another case, we will. “It’ll just be more money,” Kaplan explained.