(NEW YORK) — Longtime advice columnist E. Jean Carroll said she feels “fantastic” one day after a jury found former President Donald Trump liable for battery and defamation in her lawsuit against him.
“Yesterday was probably the happiest day of my life,” Carroll told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview Wednesday on Good Morning America.
In a lawsuit filed last November, Carroll alleged that Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in Manhattan, New York in the mid-1990s and then defamed her when he mocked and dismissed her claim in 2022. Trump has denied all charges.
A jury in a New York City federal court on Tuesday ruled that Trump did not rape Carroll but did sexually abuse and defame her. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages.
Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist and Saturday Night Live writer, told ABC News that she didn’t report the incident to police decades ago because she was “too ashamed” and “blamed herself.”
In a 2022 social media post, Trump called Carroll’s allegations “a Hoax and a lie” and said, “This woman is not my type!”
“I only decided to come forward and tell what happened — I thought that was enough,” Carroll told ABC News. “And then he said terrible things about me.”
Carroll recalled feeling “shaken” throughout the trial, especially during her three days of testimony. Trump chose not to take the stand.
“I was always shaken,” she added. “But I felt strong because I knew I was telling the truth and I just stuck to it.”
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, told ABC News that Trump has “absolutely zero” grounds for an appeal.
“He has no appeal,” Kaplan said, noting that the judge gave Trump “multiple chances to come to that courtroom and testify.”
“Donald Trump, like all of us, is not above the law,” she added.
Carroll recalled holding Kaplan’s “ice cold” hand with anticipation when the jury read the verdict on Tuesday.
“It was this 5-foot-3, wily, female attorney and this elderly, 79-year-old advice columnist who are finally holding Donald Trump liable,” she told ABC News. “It was such a wonderful, overwhelming moment.”
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
