PARIS, France (AFP) — American journalist and writer E Jean Carroll, the only person to successfully sue Donald Trump for sexual assault, told AFP she is finally free to spend the damages awarded to her from the US president.

But she won’t be splurging on herself.

In late June, the US Supreme Court rejected what was thought to be a final appeal from Trump against Carroll’s civil claim over a 1996 assault, meaning $5.6 million in damages which had been deposited by the president could be finally released to her.

But the fight did not end there for a woman whose seven-year legal battle against the Republican head of state has turned her into the standard bearer for dozens of others who have accused the US leader of sexual misconduct.

“So I have the money in my account, and Trump goes off his rocker and tries to bring a court injunction to get the money back!” Carroll told AFP of the pay-out.

“Why? Because he wants the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision.”

Now, this week, “the Trump lawyers and the Carroll lawyers have now signed an agreement that the injunction is moot”, the 82-year-old said in Paris, where she is promoting a French-language version of her book.

Although she can now spend the money, she says she has little need for it.

“I don’t buy stuff. I know how to be happy,” she said, before joking about the possibility of AI-created Armageddon: “I mean, you don’t really need a bunch of money now, not with the world ending.”

– ‘Not an easy moment’ –
A second, much larger pay-out from Trump is also working its way through the US court system, with Carroll promising that the money “is going to go to everything he hates” — women’s rights, minority rights, the environment.

Damages of $83.3 million were awarded from a defamation case that Carroll launched against Trump after he denied sexually assaulting her in the changing room of a Manhattan department store and called her a liar.

Carroll recounted her ordeal and her excruciating legal fight in her book last year — “Not My Type” — which showcases her talent for observation and acid humour that made her a well-known columnist in New York in the 80s and 90s.

The title was a reference to Trump’s infamous statement about her when she first aired her allegations.

The fight, she says, has been “hard, every single minute”.

“Some of it was thrilling. Some of it was exciting. Some of it was exasperating. Some of it I wished 100 times I wasn’t there, and some of it was very funny,” she explained.

“But it was all hard. There was not an easy moment in seven years.

“I could do it because I didn’t have children. I was older. I had nothing to lose.”

Seen by supporters as a feminist icon, Carroll says that, sadly, the lessons of her experience are how difficult it is to gain justice and how the hopes sparked by the #MeToo movement against sexual assault have evaporated.

“No woman would want to do this now. Do you see any women coming forward?” she asked.

“We’ve seen the statistics (on convictions). We’re not stupid. Women are laying low right now.”

– Other accusers –
Carroll also offers disturbing news from some of the other Trump accusers who she says form a “sisterhood”, chatting via Zoom and checking in on each other.

Many of them came forward and spoke to the media or made public statements about Trump only to hear him say “terrible things” about them.

“I can think of three of the women who took it to heart, have never gotten over it, and their families don’t know what to do. They don’t know how to help them,” she added.

As well as continuing to fight the defamation case, Carroll needed lawyers again in late May amid reports that a federal prosecutor in Illinois had opened a criminal case against her.

“I cleaned up the whole house and washed the toilets and got everything ready because I thought they were coming to arrest me. My lawyer was preparing me,” she told AFP.

After days of anonymous sources briefing the media, the US attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Andrew Boutros, publicly denied he had started an investigation.

Despite what she says are daily threats against her from Trump supporters, she finds peace in what she calls her “hovel” — her modest rural home in upstate New York.

But she still can’t understand why more powerful figures in the corporate world or civil society don’t stand up to Trump.

“I’m the only person who succeeded out of all these Americans… It makes no sense,” she said.