Who is E Jean Carroll’s friend Lisa Birnbach?

A jury has found that Donald Trump sexually assaulted columnist E. Jean Carroll and ordered the former president to pay damages totaling $5 million.

The jury panel found that Trump injured Carroll in the mid-1990s at the luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan, and that he has since slandered her by calling her a liar.

Questioned by Carroll’s attorney at the May 2023 civil trial, Lisa Birnbach told the court how her friend was “breathless, hyperventilating, [and] emotional’ while she is a brief description to her of the alleged assault over the phone.

After telling Birnbach how Trump allegedly pinned her to the locker room wall, pulled down her tights and assaulted her, Birnbach begged Carroll to go to the police. But Carroll refused.

Now, nearly three decades after the alleged altercation — with the help of Birnbach detailing their mid-1990s phone call to court — a civil jury has found the former president legally responsible for assault.

Who is Lisa Birnbach?

The Manhattanite was born in the late 1950s on the Upper East Side to a Jewish family. Her father had emigrated from Germany before World War II, where he later worked as a diamond importer in the US. Her mother worked at the Jewish Museum in Manhattan.

After a year of studying at Barnard College in New York, Birnbach transferred to Brown University, where she graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Semiotics.

She began her writing career with New York City’s Village Voice, Birnbach’s Prabook profile details. She then spent three years as a correspondent on CBS’s The Early Show, and hosted her own radio program, The Lisa Birnbach Show.

Birnbach is an award-winning journalist with bylines in the New York Times and The New Yorker. She also spent time as a deputy editor at Spy magazine.

She is perhaps best known as the author of The Official Preppy Handbook and True Prep. The satirical reference guide pokes fun at North American prep school and college culture. Released in 1980 and 2010 respectively, the books became New York Times bestsellers.

Birnbach has also published more than 20 other books and has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Parade, and Rolling Stone.

What was Lisa Birnbach’s testimony in the E Jean Carroll v. Donald Trump case?

After Carroll told her about the alleged attack over the phone in the mid-1990s, Lisa Birnbach urged her friend to report to the police. Carol refused.

A key witness in the 2023 civil case chosen by prosecutors in the civil trial to get jurors to hold Trump liable for sexual assault and later defamation of Carroll, the court heard how Birnbach was a “good, good, good friend” of Carroll was and had known her for over 20 years.

The award-winning writer said she recalled during the phone call that Carroll didn’t use the term “rape” to characterize the altercation, calling it a “fight.”

Carroll would “hyperventilate” during the conversation, Birnbach said, adding that it seemed like she was “still processing” what happened.

“Lisa, you won’t believe what happened to me,” Carrol told Birnbach.

Carroll told her that after joking, Trump “hit her against the wall” in the locker room, then did it again.

Birnbach said Carroll told him the former president held her with one arm and shoulder and pulled down her tights with the other.

She then said that Carroll kept repeating “he pulled down my tights” throughout the conversation.

Birnbach said she fed her young children in her kitchen and “ducked” out of the room to tell Carroll, “He raped you, you have to go to the police.”

Carroll replied, “No, no, no, I don’t want to go to the police.”

She added that Carroll made her swear to “never talk about this again” and to keep quiet until 2019 when Carroll went public when Trump was president.

The testimony was enough for a Manhattan jury to find the former liable for sexually assaulting Carroll and then defamed her in an October 2022 social media post.

Taking just three hours to reach their verdict, the jury of six men and three women acquitted Trump — who failed to show up during the two weeks of testimony, claiming he doesn’t even know “who.” [Carroll] is” – of rape, but found him guilty of the other two charges.

What was Lisa Birnbach’s reaction after the trial?

The suitcase weighed ‘like no other on my neck and back’. Birnbach told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell shortly after the court ruling.

“I never thought this day would happen,” the award-winning journalist added, praising the federal jurors’ decision as “incredible.”

“It’s incredible validation — incredible vindication,” Birnbach told the O’Donnell, describing Carroll’s protracted battle to bring the case to trial, but without mentioning the hefty $5 million payout.

‘It is well. I feel great,” she said. “It’s been a long road.”

She told the program shortly after the verdict: “I was shopping today, not thinking there would be a verdict.”

“When I got a text from a lawyer who ruled in 15 minutes — and I sent it to my lawyer’s office, and I was sitting in a conference room with the lawyers who helped me.”

She recalled, “I was terrified for the few minutes that waited.

“When I heard the first ‘no,’ I panicked and thought, ‘It wouldn’t be good for E. Jean Carroll.’

“We found out that it was. I couldn’t be happier or prouder of my friend.’ She added that she was toasting Carroll’s win with a glass of rosé.

She added how she and others have been impeached over the past year by Trump’s lawyers, who she says have “used every trick in the book” to delay proceedings.

“I really never thought it would happen. It seemed to go on and on,” Birnbach said.

“But telling the truth is a very liberating and happy position to be in,” she continued.

And being a good friend is a very fortunate and good position to be in. So at the moment I feel very good.’