E Jean Carroll has suggested she’ll create a “fund for the women who have been sexually assaulted by Donald Trump” from the $83 million in damages she was awarded by a jury for Trump’s repeated defamatory statements towards her.
“I’d like to give the money to something Donald Trump hates,” Carroll, 80, told ABC News. “If it will cause him pain for me to give money to certain things, that’s my intent.”
Dozens of women have accused the former US president of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment dating back to the 1970s. He has denied these accusations.
In May last year, Carroll won $5 million in damages from a civil case against Trump.
The former Elle advice columnist alleged that Trump raped her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in 1995 or 1996 and then defamed her on his truth social platform in October 2022 by denying it happened and calling her a liar.
Another $83 million in damages were awarded to Carroll on Friday after a jury took less than three hours to return a verdict that Trump should pay her the amount in damages to compensate for two defamatory statements he made against her in 2019.
Speaking to the Times, Carroll said the win for her was a win for women everywhere, but especially in a post-Roe America.
“This win, more than any other thing, when we needed it the most– after we lost the rights over our own bodies in many states– we put out our flag in the ground on this one. Women won this one. I think it bodes well for the future.”
Carroll has emphasised she wants to “do something good” with the money, noting it’s an “inspiring” amount of money.
During the two-week trial, Trump attended in-person, after his absence at last year’s trial.
Describing what it was like to face him in court, Carroll has told reporters that she had fears leading up to it until looking at him sitting feet away and realising he was “nothing”.
“When you’ve actually faced the man, he’s just a man with no clothes on,” she told the Times, referencing the story of ‘the emperor with no clothes’.
“It’s the people around him that are giving him the power,” she said.
At the end of proceedings, during closing statements from Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan, Trump muttered defamatory statements in earshot of the jury and walked out of the courtroom.
Kaplan said his behaviour only validated that Trump is “a bully who can’t follow the rules”.
Following the verdict and $83 million reward, Carroll said she saw the jurors and “it made me burst into tears because they met my eyes for the first time”.
While it could be a while before Carroll sees the money, Kaplan says she’s confident they’ll be able to collect it.
“One way or the other, he owns a lot of real estate. It can be sold. We will collect the judgement,” Kaplan said.