tomorrow, now it s time for the last word with lawrence o donnell. good evening, lawrence. tonight, where i was planning to not be on tv. i was doing an event that the boston public library, my favorite library and then that verdict came along and we made some emergency arrangements here in boston to get into this coverage tonight. we have lisa birnbach joining us, alex, as the first guest tonight. she, as you know, is e. jean carroll s best friend and the most supportive witness that e. jean carroll had in the trial. she s the very first person who heard e. jean carroll s story. that very day. minutes after it happened. when she had that encounter with donald trump at bergdorf goodman. and lisa birnbach s testimony about this, i think, should so much light into the way victims of sexual assault often have a hard time grappling with what they just went through. and lisa birnbach did, i think
dress and tights. second to reach through my donna cameron, in front, through the dress and pulled down my tights. that s when my brain went on. that s when the adrenaline started. and it became a fight. joining our discussion now, attorney faith gay, and former federal prosecutor in the eastern district of new york, also with us, michelle goldberg new york times columnist and an end to this msnbc political analyst. faith gay, let s talk the verdict a little bit here. i m interested in the damages amounts, $2 million for the sexual assault, that s the first figure that we see here. right after the jury says that the assault did result in injuring e. jean carroll, causing her physical pain. and the punitive damages for
donald trump. the jury did believe e. jean carroll. and the jury did believe the first person she told about what happened to her, her dear friend, lisa birnbach. joining us now for an exclusive interview tonight, is lisa birnbach. she is e. jean carroll s friend, and as i said, testified in this trial. lisa, thank you very much for joining us tonight. i can only wonder what this has all been like for you, i m going to begin with the moment we all went through today. and we all had some reaction to today. when we heard this verdict. where were you, and how did you hear this verdict? i was doing errands today, having thought we would not have a verdict today. lawrence, and thank you for having me. when i got a text from a lawyer saying, verdict in 15 minutes. and i hightailed it to my
around the word rape. a victim of rape was what i think what called damaged goods. i think that was sort of the way it was thought of. i think it was a struggle for her to admit that she was raped. i think part of it is, because of the victimization that goes along with it, also because, like many women of her generation, in my generation, we think we were the cause of it. we did something that elicited this aggressive behavior. and it was our fault. so, the jury didn t agree to bring back a verdict on the rape. and partially, because those
that, $20,000. so, also with the other aspects of the verdict on the defamation, 1 million dollars and one point $7 million. only $280,000 on punitive. did the jury not get any particular guidance on punitive damages? well, i think the plaintiffs counsel, lawrence, very smartly, decided to not spend a lot of time time talking about money in closing. instead saying that jean carroll wanted her story out and wanted to be believed. and in one respect, this verdict feels like a reverse engineering. that the jurors were able to come together, have a unanimous view of a 5 million-dollar verdict, that was enough to be a power play back at this powerful miscreant that they found guilty. and then they allocated it as they desired to. you see a little bit in that verdict form, especially the defamation part, where they