Former Elle Magazine writer E. Jean Carroll celebrated her legal victory against former President Donald Trump in downtown Manhattan with several liberal media personalities, according to Page Six.
A jury awarded $83.3 million to Carroll in a Friday ruling relating to her defamation lawsuit against the former president. She sued Trump for alleged defamatory statements he made about her in 2019 and for calling her a “whack job” during a CNN town hall in May.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JANUARY 25: E. Jean Carroll leaves Manhattan Federal Court for her civil defamation trial against former U.S. President Donald Trump on January 25, 2024 in New York City. Days after winning the New Hampshire primary, Trump took the stand to testify in his civil defamation trial after the trial was adjourned for several days due to an illness by a juror. The trial is to determine how much money in damages he must pay Carroll after public comments made both while he was president and after the jury’s verdict in May. Carroll was awarded $5 million in damages in May from the previous lawsuit. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Carroll then reportedly attended a celebration of the ruling at a Lower East Side bar, Flower Shop, in late January with MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell, MSNBC journalist Molly Jong-Fast, Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman, Puck columnist Tara Palmeri, New York Times opinion writer Lydia Polgreen and Washington Post scribe Sarah Ellison, according to Page Six. “Studio 360” host Kurt Andersen and former “SNL” producer Marci Klein were also reportedly in attendance.
Former US President Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower for Manhattan federal court for the second defamation trial against him, in New York City on January 17, 2024. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)
Her longtime friend Lisa Birnbach, the author of “The Official Preppy Handbook,” attended the celebration with Carroll after having testified in the trial, according to Page Six. She reportedly testified that Carroll called her in 1996 about Trump allegedly raping her in the dressing room of Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman. (RELATED: Trump Reportedly Storms Out Of Courtroom During E. Jean Carrol; Trial’s Closing Arguments)
The attendees took selfies with Carroll and branded her an “icon,” according to the outlet. Sources said she appeared “delighted and vindicated” at the celebration and “in awe” by the jury’s decision.
One witness said she dressed in “a one piece flight suit in green khaki,” according to Page Six. She joked with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow that she would use the money to buy a new wardrobe.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JANUARY 22: E. Jean Carroll leaves Manhattan federal court in New York as her defamation suit against former president Donald Trump has been postponed after a juror and one of Trump’s lawyers reported feeling ill on January 22, 2024 in New York City. Carroll, who sued Trump for defaming her when he was president, was expected to conclude her case by Monday afternoon, after which Trump’s defense case would have started. He is listed as one of only two defense witnesses and has said he plans to testify. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
“First thing, Rachel, you and I are going to go shopping … We’re going to get completely new wardrobes, new shoes,” Carroll said.
Carroll previously sued Trump over allegations that he raped her in the dressing room in the mid-1990s. The jury found him liable of sexual battery and defamation, but not of rape, and awarded Carroll with $5 million.
Carroll admitted in May she helped New York Democrats change a state law on sexual assault to lead her down the path to sue Trump. Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Adult Survivors Act into law in 2022 to allow a “one-year lookback window for survivors of sexual assault” to sue their alleged abuser “regardless of when the abuse occurred.”
She recently vowed to do “anything” in her power to help President Joe Biden get re-elected during a Monday interview with CBS News.
E. Jean Carroll Says She’ll Do ‘Anything’ To Help Biden Win