Giddy with her second legal victory over former President Donald Trump, writer E. Jean Carroll was in a promise-making mood as she celebrated on Rachel Maddow’s show on Monday.
Last year, Carroll won a judgment of $5 million against Trump after she filed a civil suit claiming he sexually abused her in a 1990s encounter in a New York City department store – an incident Trump has said never took place.
Last week, she was handed an $83.3 million payday by a federal jury in New York as her damages for allegedly being defamed by Trump in his comments about her and her lawsuit.
Trump is appealing both verdicts.
On Monday, Carroll, flanked by two lawyers, Roberta Kaplan and Shawn Crowley, appeared on MSNBC as Maddow asked Carroll what she will do with “Trump’s money.”
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“You’ve talked about using some of Trump’s money that you’re about to get to help shore up women’s rights. Do you know what that might be? What that might look like?” Maddow said.
“Yes, Rachel! Yes! I have such, such great ideas for all the good I’m gonna do with this money,” she said.
“First thing, Rachel, you and I are going to go shopping. We’re going to get completely new wardrobes, new shoes, a motorcycle for Crowley, a new fishing rod for Robbie,” she said.
Should Trump appeal the E. Jean Carroll verdict?
“Rachel, what do you want? Penthouse? It’s yours, Rachel! Penthouse and, uh, France? You want France? You wanna go fishing in France? No? Oh, all right,” she said.
Maddow, Crowley and Kaplan were laughing as Carroll spoke, but it had a forced quality — not even the most avid Trump hater would call Carroll’s off-the-rails spiel laugh-out-loud funny.
“That’s a joke,” Crowley interjected, with what could well have been a pained smile.
Maddow played along, responding, “Although if me fishing in France could do something for women’s rights, I would take the hit, you know? I would obviously take one for the team. As if you need persuasion in that regard.”
Trump has not found the verdict a laughing matter.
“Absolutely ridiculous! I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party. Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon. They have taken away all First Amendment Rights. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!” he wrote in a Truth Social post published Friday.
Trump lawyer Alina Habba said that the appeal will include what she says was a conflict of interest on the part of Judge Lewis Kaplan, according to the New York Post.
The judge and Carroll attorney Roberta Kaplan – no relation to the judge – were employed by the same large law firm in the 1990s, the Post reported.
How closely they worked together at Paul, Weiss Rifkin, Wharton & Garrison is in dispute, according to the Post.
A representative for Roberta Kaplan said Lewis Kaplan was a “senior partner” while Roberta Kaplan was a “junior associate and she never worked for him,” according to the Post.
However, another partner at the firm told the Post the relationship was much closer than that and that Lewis Kaplan was “like her mento”
Habba only learned of the relationship when questioned about it by Post columnist Charles Gasparino.
“It was never disclosed,” she told the Post. “It’s insane and so incestuous.”
She called it a “conflict of interest.”
“This is news to us,” she said. “We are going to include this in our appeal and take appropriate measures. The fact it wasn’t disclosed is an ethics violation.”
