Jean Carroll says the $83.3 million award she was awarded in her defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump shows there is “no need to fear” the former president.
“That was an amazing discovery for me: He was a nobody,” Carroll said Monday night on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show. The former Elle magazine columnist likened President Trump to a “snorting walrus” and “a rhinoceros flapping his hands,” adding: “He can be defeated.”
The jury in Carroll’s lawsuit against Trump in federal court in New York on Friday ruled that the potential 2024 Republican White House nominee made disparaging comments against him, accusing him of sexual abuse. They were each awarded $65 million in punitive damages and $18.3 million in compensatory damages. she.
These damages are on top of about $10 million in damages awarded to Trump in May after another jury found the former president liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a department store locker room in the mid-1990s. It belonged to
On Monday, Carroll made her first appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America following a national media tour, where she spoke about things Trump “hates”, including a “fund for women who have been sexually assaulted by Trump”. He promised to provide funding from the judgment. .
She also told Good Morning America that she was scared to confront Trump in open court with her lawyers, but ultimately realized he was like “an emperor without clothes.” Told.
Carroll revisited that theme in a later conversation on Maddow’s show.
“Three or four days before the trial, I actually got sick,” Carroll told Maddow. “I lost my ability to speak, I lost my words, I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t go on…That’s how scared I was.”
However, Carol reiterated that her imagination was worse than anything she had encountered.
“To my surprise, when I looked outside, he was nobody,” Carroll told Maddow. “He was nothing. He was an illusion. It was the people around him who gave him strength. He himself was nothing.”
Carroll also joked that she would take Maddow shopping for a new wardrobe and buy her a penthouse with some of the money Trump ordered her to pay.
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Elsewhere on Friday, after the verdict was handed down, President Trump appeared on Truth Social and raved about how “out of control” the U.S. court system is.
He also said he intended to appeal the decision, which came at a time when Carroll’s legal problems appeared to be mounting.
Not only is his business practices under scrutiny in other civil cases in New York, but he also faces more than 90 criminal charges in various jurisdictions. Among those charges: trying to forcefully overturn the 2020 election results, illegally retaining government secrets after taking office, and paying hush money to an adult film actor who alleged extramarital sexual relations. This includes things such as paying.
Carroll and lead attorney Roberta Kaplan said Monday on Good Morning America that they were confident they would recover Friday’s verdict against Trump.
“I think we planted the flag,” Carroll added on MSNBC. “I think we made a statement that things are going to change, there are going to be new ways to do this in this country.”
