It has come to light that former President Donald Trump defamation victor E. Jean Carroll has expressed outrage at Trump for “using the woman he sexually assaulted to get votes!” via Mediaite.
Trump walked out of court during closing arguments and Judge Lewis Kaplan threatened Trump’s lawyer with jail time on Friday and was hit with a bombshell $83.3 million judgment for defaming Carroll while he was president. A jury had already determined he sexually abused Carroll in the ’90s in what Judge Kaplan described as a “rape” as the word is “commonly understand” in one ruling.
On Monday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, co-anchors Poppy Harlow and Phil Mattingly interviewed Carroll and attorney Roberta “Robbie” Kaplan about the staggering verdict.
Mattingly asked Carroll about Trump’s political strength in the face of legal disaster, and Carroll expressed astonished dismay over the phenomenon — and had some ideas about what to do with the money:
PHIL MATTINGLY: One of the paradoxical, is probably the best word I can put it, dynamics of this moment for him, for the former president and his legal troubles has been politically, he only seems to get more powerful within the Republican Party.
I understand you’ve been focused on the trial, but do you see that? Do you have concerns? Not based on your trial specifically, but just about the fact that this person who you’ve stared down in a courtroom has only gotten more powerful as all of this has played out and you’ve won repeatedly in these cases?
E. JEAN CARROLL: It is a para– for him the courtroom was not a courtroom to him. It was a campaign stopy. That was clear. So we had two different objectives. Ours was to win a case. His was to win voters.
We’ll see how that plays out. He’s using me. To win voters. Sexual assault. A man found liable for sexual assault — is using the woman he sexually assaulted to get votes!
POPPY HARLOW: You may soon, though, have quite a bit of his money, and I wonder how you plan to use that.
E. JEAN CARROLL: Oh it’s inspiring. We talk about it a lot. We’re going to do good with that money. We’re going to do– Mary Trump has suggested we turn Trump Tower into an animal sanctuary. For instance. A joke. That was a joke Poppy. No. But we were inspired to, do not waste a penny of this. And we have some good ideas that we’re working on.
POPPY HARLOW: Specifically aimed at what would oppose Trump?
E. JEAN CARROLL: Well Donald Trump hates women. Remember the New York magazine, the famous quote when they said, Don what do you think of women? And he said, “Women. They’re not worth a piece of crap.”
Remember that quote? And so I think one of the things we could do see is how he’s very instrumental in taking away women’s rights over their bodies across the United States. Maybe we can think about how we can restore women their rights. Use a little money for that.
