E. Jean Carroll hopes to use Donald Trump’s $83M on something that will “cause him pain”

A jury in New York City issued an $83.3 million judgment against Donald Trump for repeatedly defaming E. Jean Carroll, the woman he sexually assaulted – and Caroll has big plans for how to use the money.

“I’d like to give the money to something Donald Trump hates,” she said in an appearance on Good Morning America. “If it will cause him pain for me to give money to certain things, perhaps a fund for the women who have been sexually assaulted by Donald Trump.”

Related: The lawyer who helped give us marriage equality may be Donald Trump’s biggest problem

Roberta Kaplan reminds voters Trump is a sexual assaulter just when he wanted to take an electoral victory lap.

Carroll said that “the elation was so great” upon hearing the jury’s verdict. “It filled me up. It was almost painful.”

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Trump sexually assaulted Carroll in a department store in 1995 and then defamed her in 2019, calling her a liar for writing about the sexual assault in her book. A jury last year found that he sexually assaulted her and ordered him to pay her $5 million for the sexual assault.

But that didn’t stop his defamation of Carroll as he continued to insult her and call her a liar. Carroll’s lawyer, out attorney Roberta Kaplan, vowed to drag Trump back to court, and she did. Trump still wouldn’t stop attacking Carroll, repeatedly posting about her on his social media platform Truth Social.

Caroll said she spent weeks unable to eat and sleep leading up to the trial, terrified to be in a room with Trump. But when the trial actually began, she said she realized “he was, like, nothing.”

“Like an emperor without clothes,” she explained. “All my terror leading up to it, and he’s just something in a suit… The there is not there.”

In another interview on CNN, Carroll stated she was “flabbergasted” by Trump’s powerlessness. “He was nothing,” she said, “just no power. He was zero.”

Kaplan appeared alongside her client for the Good Morning America interview and said she’s “pretty confident” the money will come through “one way or the other.”

She also commented on the moment Trump stormed out of the courtroom during her closing statement, saying that she thinks his behavior got them at least 10 million more dollars.

“I didn’t see him do it… but 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 is an interesting strategy, let me put it that way.”

Last week, an op-ed in Salon called out Trump for “acting like a cartoonishly evil villain on an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” throughout the trial.

“The only way he could seem any more like a sexual predator is if he wore a raincoat to court and periodically flashed any woman who came into view,” wrote Amanda Marcotte.

Kaplan also said that if Trump continues to defame Carroll, they are not planning to back down.

“All options are on the table,” she said. “If we have to bring another case, we’ll bring another case.”

“The elation was so great on Friday, it filled me up. It was almost painful.” 

E. Jean Carroll and her attorney Roberta Kaplan share their reaction to the jury ordering former Pres. Trump to pay Carroll $83.3 million in damages. https://t.co/467d4oa1Gu pic.twitter.com/CFmyXbIfFI

— Good Morning America (@GMA) January 29, 2024 Don't forget to share: