'My eyes welled up': Trump enemy delights that defamation jury punished 'scorn'
George Conway teared up with happiness when he learned a New York jury chose to slap former President Donald Trump with a $83 million ruling, he wrote in a new essay published Tuesday.
Conway, the attorney who paired E. Jean Carroll with her lawyer before the landmark civil defamation trial, argued in the Atlantic that the jury had punished Trump for the behavior they witnessed firsthand.
“They got to see how Trump had nothing but contempt for the woman who accused him of rape, and whom he had defamed so many times,” Conway writes.
“They saw, just a few feet away, how he had nothing but scorn for the court, the judge, the law — and, by extension, the jury and each and every one of us.”
As a lawyer, Conway was not surprised that the jury chose such a high amount considering Trump had been found liable for defaming Carroll while he was serving as a U.S. president, claiming he had never met the woman he would later be found liable of sexually abusing.
Conway also noted Trump continued to send out negative messaging about Carroll even as the trial was unfolding, which he argued contributed to the massive amount the jury ordered Trump to pay.
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“He continued to lie about her, over and over again, even during this second trial — displaying a maliciousness that could justify punitive damages several times higher than the amount quantifying her actual harm,” Conway wrote.
“On a professional level, I wasn’t surprised. But on a personal one, I felt overwhelmed.”
Conway, detailing the moment he heard news of the verdict, said he was slammed with messages from friends and journalists demanding to know how he felt and what he thought.
Trump once considered Conway, the ex-husband of the Kellyanne Conway who served as a counselor for the former president, for a high-ranking role in his administration but the lawyer withdrew his name and began to speak out against him.
“I’m not ashamed to say tears welled up in my eyes,” Conway wrote about hearing the verdict. “They saw that Donald Trump is a man who must be held to account if simple decency and justice are to be upheld.”
Conway said he was happy not just for his friend Carroll, but for the nation as well, arguing the verdict has a deeper meaning beyond the severe punishment ordered on a former president.
“Some things rise above politics," Conway concludes. "The challenge posed by Donald Trump is about right and wrong. Everyone needs to look at it that way. And that’s just what the jury did.”