Donald Trump has become the first former US president to be found liable for sexual abuse. Yesterday, a New York jury found he sexually abused and defamed former columnist E Jean Carroll in a civil trial. He has been ordered to pay her $5m (£4m) in damages. Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a Manhattan department store nearly 30 years ago. The jury didn’t find Trump liable for rape, but he was found liable for defamation over claims from October 2022 that her accusation was ‘a hoax and a lie.’
E Jean Carroll hailed the verdict as a ‘victory’, saying ‘I filed this lawsuit against Donald Trump to clear my name and to get my life back. Today, the world finally knows the truth. This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed.’
Who is E Jean Carroll?
E Jean Carroll is a magazine journalist, author and advice columnist. Her ‘Ask E. Jean’ column appeared in Elle magazine from 1993 through 2019. She’s also an author of her 2019 book, What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal. Carroll accused Les Moonves (an American media executive who was the chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation) and Trump of sexually assaulting her in the mid-1990s. Both denied the allegations.
E Jean Carroll when she was younger
People are also searching for pictures ‘E Jean Carroll younger’, presumably hoping to see what she looked like when the abuse by Trump took place. This may be because part of his defense has been that he wasn’t attracted to her, a typical Trumpian put down because so much of what he says suggests he thinks looks are the be all and end all. As for people searching for 'E Jean Carroll younger', is this people trying to decipher whether she was his ‘type’? If so, it’s hard to imagine this happening if she were a man. Would the world care what a man looked like 30 years ago? How is E Jean Carroll younger relevant? It seems like a case of double standards, where a woman’s appearance matters so much more than a man's, as if a woman is any more likely or unlikely to be telling the truth if she isn’t attractive. How a person looks has nothing to do with sexual abuse and searching for pictures of E Jean Carroll to see what she looked like at the time of the abuse perpetuates this.
Can Trump run for president again?
People are also searching for whether Trump can run for president. Yes, technically he can, and he’s said he will stand again in 2024. And there’s nothing to suggest this is going to stop him. In fact, he’s so confident in his support base that, in the past, he’s even boasted that he could shoot a person on Fifth Avenue in New York and still not lose voters. The way he frames negative press like this as ‘unfair’ (he’s called this trial an unfair trial and accused the judges as being ‘biased’) means he could well convince voters that he’s the victim here. Unsurprisingly, he has said he will appeal yesterday’s verdict.
Carroll is not the only woman to accuse Trump of sexual misconduct. Over two dozen women have come forward with accusations against Trump in recent years. Like with Carroll, Trump has denied all the allegations, and has claimed women who spoke out were lying or politically motivated, the BBC reports.