'We are not the liars. He is': Trump #MeToo accuser reacts to E. Jean Carroll verdict

 Samantha Holvey has taken screenshots of all the headlines since news broke Tuesday that a federal jury found former President Donald Trump liable in a civil sexual abuse and defamation case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll.

She messaged the screenshots to her friend, Rachel Crooks, along with clapping emojis and the smiley face emoji with tears welling in its eyes.

And she sent an email to Carroll, congratulating and thanking her.

A former Miss North Carolina USA, Holvey claimed in 2016 that Trump inspected each of the pageant contestants individually, which made her feel like a “piece of meat” who was only "there for his pleasure.” Crooks accused Trump of kissing her without consent when she worked as a receptionist at Trump Tower in the early 2000s.

Today, Holvey said she feels an "overwhelming sense of joy."

"All of these years we've been called liars," Holvey told USA TODAY. "To finally have an entire jury be like, 'No, we believe you' — it's incredibly vindicating."

Samantha "Sam" Holvey,was Miss NC in 2006, when she met former President Donald Trump while competing in the Miss USA contest. Today Sam is a church Elder at Parkside Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

It took the jury less than three hours to determine Trump is liable for sexual abuse and forcible touching that injured Carroll, but not rape. Carroll said the former president lied about a 1996 sexual assault in a New York City department store, disparaging her character in the process.











The jury decided Trump should pay Carroll $5 million in total damages. The former president is likely to appeal the verdict, which he called a "disgrace" on his Truth Social website.

Holvey didn't follow the trial minute-to-minute; she said she still finds it difficult to hear Trump's name and see his face. But she kept up with the case to support Carroll and Jessica Leeds, another Trump accuser who testified on Carroll's behalf.

Holvey, Leeds and Crooks met in 2017 after giving a December press conference demanding a congressional investigation into harassment allegations against Trump. They started an email chain, which has since grown to include other women who accused the former president of sexual misconduct. The women lean on each other for support.

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Verdict:Jury finds Donald Trump liable in civil sex abuse case of E. Jean Carroll

Leeds testified during the trial that Trump groped her during an airplane flight from Texas to New York in 1979.

"It was like he had 40 zillion hands," she told the jury. "It was like a tussling match between the two of us."

Holvey said she's "proud" of Leeds and Carroll for telling their stories and thinks the speed with which the jury reached its verdict sends a message: "The good ol' boys club is not going to work anymore."

"I have received so many messages about 'boys will be boys.' That I'm a pretty woman, and I should just accept that boys will be boys," Holvey said. "No — absolutely not."

In a previous interview with USA TODAY, Holvey said that Trump's indictment in a New York hush money case was not the trial Trump’s accusers had their eyes on; it was Carroll's case in which women would have the "opportunity to be heard and believed.”

The verdict affirmed that, she said.

"We are not the liars," Holvey said. "He is."


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