Brittainy Newman/AP
- E. Jean Carroll was victorious in her civil case against former President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
- A jury found Trump sexually abused Carroll and defamed her when denying it, awarding her $5 million.
- After the verdict was read, Carroll told Trump's attorney, Joe Tacopina: "He did it."
"He did it, and you know it."
Those are the searing words E. Jean Carroll said she had for Donald Trump's attorney after a Manhattan jury found the former president liable on Tuesday for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her.
"I am overwhelmed, overwhelmed with joy and happiness and delight for the women in this country," Carroll told Savannah Guthrie on the "Today" show Wednesday morning.
But Trump's attorney, Joe Tacopina, disputed part of Carroll's statement, adding that they plan to appeal the verdict.
"She didn't say that to me," Tacopina told Insider on Wednesday. "She said, 'Thank you. And he did it.' She did not add, 'And you know it.'"
The jury unanimously found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the 1990s and later defaming her when denying the accusations. They came to the verdict after about 2 1/2 hours of deliberating and awarded Carroll $5 million in damages.
"This is not about the money," Carroll told Guthrie. "This is about getting my name back."
—TODAY (@TODAYshow) May 10, 2023
The jury did not find Trump liable for rape, which Carroll had alleged in her complaint. She hung her head on Tuesday when that part of the verdict didn't go her way, Insider's Jacob Shamsian reported.
In a comment to Insider on Tuesday, Carroll said: "Today, the world finally knows the truth. This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed."
Trump did not show up for the extent of the two-week trial, a decision that may have cost him.
On Truth Social, he derided the verdict, saying he had "ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS."
"THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE," Trump wrote. "A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!"
Tacopina spoke with reporters following the verdict, saying he was "a little perplexed," Newsweek reported.
"Yeah, it was fast. I mean, it is hard to see behind a jury door, and I don't know what they were thinking," Tacopina said. "What people have been saying is that in New York you can't get a fair trial, and people have said you lost the case when they announced the names of the litigants."
Carroll's lawyer Roberta Kaplan said on the "Today" show that Trump's decision to not testify in the trial helped their case because he was "basically a witness against himself" in the video deposition the jury saw.