What do the legal victories of former advice columnist E Jean Carroll mean for the general public? What does Carroll herself say about the whole thing?
We first found out about her sexual assault allegations against the current U.S. president in her first memoir, What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal (2019).
Trump made the cut of her personal list of men who had committed harm against her and how they did it. Although she had confided in a couple friends about the long-ago assault, she had never reported it to authorities.
But it was out there now for Trump to have his own say, which unsurprisingly was along the lines of every insult he’s ever slung at anyone who has a complaint about him.
She then sued him. “In May 2023, a federal civil jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse, forcible touching, and defamation. The jury awarded $5m in damages, rejecting Trump’s defense that Carroll was not his ‘type’…After the decision, Trump lashed out” again (The Guardian).
And that led to a second civil defamation lawsuit against him and another victory for Carroll. Trump’s appeals, furthermore, have failed—the last one recently.
Carroll wrote about her court cases in her second memoir Not My Type: One Woman Vs. a President (2025).
Now there’s a documentary called Ask E. Jean, directed by Ivy Meeropol, about Carroll’s life and career as well as her “standing up to power, becoming the only woman to beat Donald Trump twice in court, and sparking a national conversation about truth, accountability, and resilience. This film is a portrait of an indomitable woman who proved it’s never too late to reclaim your voice, rewrite your story, and change the world,” states the description on Rotten Tomatoes.
Unfortunately, it is not widely available. Any guesses why? Consider all you already know about the type of intimidation tactics used by the Trump administration, and therein may be some clues regarding the lack of financial backing of the film and its distribution.
One who’s seen and reviewed this documentary is Scaachi Koul, Slate: “Carroll is a product of her generation, she reminds us in Ask E. Jean, which makes her transformation even more remarkable. ‘I was born in 1943,’ she says during one deposition used as a voice-over. ‘We are the chin-up, move-it-on, grin-and-bear-it generation. We didn’t complain. It would never occur to me’.”
Her continued stand as well as the fact that the justice system has shown it still has some teeth needs to be more noticed than it’s been. Mafia-style tactics don’t always have to win, either in court or in the realm of public knowledge.
