E. Jean Carroll ran against former President Donald Trump and won, and now she wants other women to know they’ve the facility to do the identical.
Carroll, who won $83.3 million in defamation damages against Trump in January, spoke to attendees of Fortune’s Most Power Women dinner in New York on Tuesday and said the end result of the upcoming presidential election will depend upon the election which women could depend upon.
“Women could actually win this election,” she told Fortune’s Emma Hinchliffe. “Black women made gains, particularly in the 2020 election. And now I think suburban moms and wives should run in this election.”
Carroll, a journalist and writer, sued Trump for defamation after he called her a liar in 2019 when she publicly accused him of sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in 1996. A jury found that Trump’s statements had significantly damaged Carroll’s fame. It was the second time Carroll defeated the previous president in court. Last May, a separate jury found Trump not guilty of rape but guilty of sexually assaulting Carroll after which defaming her by claiming she made up the story. The ruling called for Carroll to be awarded $5 million, bringing the entire amount Trump owes her to $88.3 million.
Propelled by these victories, Carroll, who was joined on stage by her attorney Roberta Kaplan, told the audience that she was “very, very positive” in regards to the power of girls to effect social change, despite significant setbacks in women’s rights, including the Repeal of Roe v. Wade and the recent overturning of Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction by New York’s highest court.
“I don’t think we’re going to be stopped, I really don’t,” Carroll said. “We just have to work hard to help our sisters in the South and reclaim the rights to their own bodies.”
Carroll hasn’t received her money from Trump yet, but that hasn’t stopped her from making big plans about tips on how to spend it. “I will give everything Donald Trump hates,” she said. “He is filling the Supreme Court with conservative justices who are stripping women of their right to their own bodies. I will use as much as possible [in]to reclaim women’s rights over our own bodies. I will give it to help women become lawyers, especially mothers who would like to receive a scholarship… Since he doesn’t have a dog, I would like to donate to the ASPCA.”
When asked how she copes with being heavily criticized online amongst Trump’s supporters, Carroll said her experience was representative of what many ladies experience on social media. “Every woman in this room has people saying terrible things [about them] on X, on Instagram. We all think, “You’re ugly, you’re old, you’re shriveled, you don’t deserve this, you’re pathetic, you’re disgusting.” We all get it. I’m not unusual.”
However, the conclusions of their trials make the abuse easier to endure. And Carroll said she was touched to be in the identical room with so many influential women.
“A serious woman is an extremely powerful being,” she warned. “It’s about never despairing – never despairing. Always stay positive to be able to accomplish what we need to accomplish.”
