E. Jean Carroll said Wednesday she was “overwhelmed with joy” for women across America after former President Donald Trump was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming her.
Carroll, 79, said in an interview with NBC News’ Savannah Guthrie on “TODAY” Wednesday morning that the court win was not about the millions she was awarded in damages but securing a victory for all women.
“I am overwhelmed, overwhelmed with joy and happiness and delight for the women in this country,” she said.
“This is not about the money. This is about getting my name back,” Carroll added.
A nine-person New York jury awarded the writer $5 million in damages for claims of battery and defamation, but said Trump wasn’t liable for the alleged rape of Carroll at a Manhattan department store in the 1990s.
Trump, who is campaigning for the 2024 presidency, has consistently denied Carroll’s claims.
“I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS. THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE — A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!” he wrote on his social media site, Truth Social, after the verdicts were handed down.
A Trump campaign spokesman said in a statement Tuesday: “This case will be appealed, and we will ultimately win.”
Carroll was alongside her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, who said she was confident that her client will collect the damages from Trump and that his team has no grounds for an appeal.
“I’ve rarely felt more confident about an appeal as I do about this one,” she said.
Kaplan said there was “no question” the jury was sending a message by awarding multi-million dollar damages and reaching a verdict in a matter of hours.
She also said that Trump’s decision not to testify had helped. “He didn’t even bother to show up,” Kaplan added.
Carroll also spoke of the toll the case has taken on her over more than 30 years.
“Before yesterday there was a concept of the perfect victim, who always screams, always reports to the police, always makes notes of when it happened, and their life folds up and they’re never supposed to be happy,” she said.
“Yesterday we demolished that concept, it is gone. It’s not so much about me, it’s about every woman.”
Asked what she would say to Trump if she could, Carroll said she approached his attorney, Joe Tacopina, at the conclusion of the case and let him know.
“Tacopina put out his hand and I said ‘He did it and you know it.’ So I got my chance,” she recalled.
Several Republican senators have warned that Tuesday’s verdict could hurt Trump’s chances of reelection. The verdict marks the first time a former president has been found liable for sexual misconduct in a civil case.
The outcome of the civil case has no criminal implications. The standard of evidence needed to prove liability — on the preponderance of evidence — was lower than that of a criminal trial, in which a case must be proven beyond all reasonable doubt.
Carroll sued in Manhattan federal court last year, alleging Trump raped her in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman department store near his Fifth Avenue home in 1995 or 1996. She first went public with the claim in 2019 in her book “What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal.”
Trump, first as president and then as a private citizen, called Carroll’s account a fiction that she concocted to boost book sales, and he has said she is “not my type.” He didn’t testify at the trial, but parts of his video deposition from October were played for the jury.
The verdict was required to be unanimous. It was issued Tuesday after the jury deliberated for only about three hours.
Asked on its verdict sheet whether Carroll had proven “by a preponderance of the evidence” that “Mr. Trump raped Ms. Carroll,” the jury of six men and three women checked the box that said “no.”
Asked whether Carroll had proven “by a preponderance of the evidence” that “Mr. Trump sexually abused Ms. Carroll,” the jury checked the box that said “yes.” Both allegations were elements of Carroll’s battery claim.
The jury also found Trump had defamed Carroll by calling her claims a “hoax” and a “con job,” after deliberating for only about three hours. Carroll was awarded just over $2 million on the battery claim and just under $3 million on the defamation claims.
