E Jean Carroll aims to give defamation money ‘to something Trump hates’
E Jean Carroll intends to spend the $83m awarded to her in her defamation trial against Donald Trump on something the former president “hates”, she revealed just days after the judgment.
On Friday, the jury in Carroll’s case decided that she should receive $18.3m in compensatory damages and $65m punitive retribution in the case pitting her against Trump. Of the $18.3m,
Trump was told to pay Carroll $11m to fund a reputational repair campaign and $7.3m for the emotional harm caused by statements he made against her in 2019.
Carroll and her legal team did not speak to reporters as they left court but broke their public silence on Monday in an interview with Good Morning America.
Alongside her lawyer Roberta Kaplan, Carroll told host George Stephanopoulos that Friday’s win had left her overcome with “elation”.
“It filled me up … It was almost painful,” she said, adding: “Today, I’m very happy.
Stephanopoulos asked her to give the public an idea as to how she planned to spend the millions of dollars she has won, and Carroll provided a clear outline.
“I’d like to give the money to something Donald Trump hates,” Carroll said. “If it’ll cause him pain for me to give money to certain things, that’s my intent.”
Carroll also said that she would perhaps explore giving to “a fund for the women who have been sexually assaulted by Donald Trump”.
Trump went on his Truth Social platform to decry Friday’s decision as “absolutely ridiculous” and said he would be filing an appeal.
“Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon,” Trump’s Truth Social post said in part. “THIS IS NOT AMERICA!”
Trump plans to appeal the verdict. A letter filed in Manhattan federal court by Alina Habba, Trump’s lawyer, pointed out a possible conflict of interest. The letter cited a 27 January New York Post article discussing Judge Lewis Kaplan’s alleged prior working relationship with Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan, who is not related.
Judge Kaplan’s chambers did not immediately respond to a request for
comment after business hours.
Spokespeople for Carroll and Roberta Kaplan did not immediately respond to similar requests, but one spokesperson told the Post that no conflict existed.
Pointing to Trump’s combative response, Stephanopoulos asked Carroll’s attorney whether or not their side expected to collect the money awarded to them. Kaplan said that she was “pretty confident”.
“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.
In the weeks leading up to the trial, Carroll revealed that she was not sleeping or eating in anticipation of facing the former president.
A judge determined Trump had defamed Carroll after sexually abusing her in a department room dressing store in the mid-1990s and subsequently defamed her.
However, once she arrived for the trial that produced Friday’s judgment,
Carroll said seeing Trump was like seeing “an emperor without clothes”. “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.”
The recent trial was separate from one about a year earlier in which Carroll won $5m for sexual abuse and separate, earlier remarks which had also defamed her. The proceeding was mostly absent of theatrics, though Trump caused a stir when he walked out during Kaplan’s closing statement.
Asked about her reaction to that moment, Kaplan quipped that she felt the moment won Carroll about $10m.
“The idea in a case where our basic thesis is that he’s a bully who can’t follow the rules, to act like a bully who doesn’t follow the rules? An interesting strategy, let me put it that way,” Kaplan said about how Trump stormed out during her closing statement.
Kaplan went on to note that if Trump goes on to defame Carroll again, they would “bring another case”.
“It’s just going to be more money,” Kaplan said.