E. Jean Carroll still terrifies Trump

The smartest way for Donald Trump to deal with his E. Jean Carroll problem would be to accept defeat, pay her what he owes and never speak of her again. Both the media and the public seem, sadly, to have moved on after not one but two civil juries found in May 2023 and January 2024 that the retired journalist told the truth when she said Trump sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the ’90s. Even though he has been accused of sexual abuse or harassment by more than two dozen women, a majority of voters either forgot or didn’t care enough about the allegations by the time the November 2024 election came around, instead voting him back into the White House. With this history, the politically wise move for the president would be to stop creating news hooks reminding everyone that his violent, misogynist rhetoric isn’t just a schtick, but a hateful ideology he’s inflicted on real women.

But Trump can’t let it go, and he has tied the 82-year-old Carroll up in appeals courts, where he continues to make shameful and dishonest accusations against a woman he has already been held liable for defaming and assaulting. He continues to insist she lied, even as he once veered very close to admitting he did it by falsely saying she enjoyed being assaulted. Now the Justice Department, which has grown even more flagrantly corrupt under the leadership of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — who served as Trump’s private lawyer during both of Carroll’s trials — has opened a criminal investigation into Carroll.

Even by the president’s sub-basement level standards, this move is grotesque. Beyond the damage he’s done as a politician, Trump has been credibly accused of victimizing countless people by taking their money, safety and dignity. But few have endured more psychological damage at Trump’s hands than Carroll, beginning with the alleged — and reportedly violent — dressing room encounter, which left her so traumatized she never had sex again. As she testified before two juries, Trump’s repeated public accusations that she lied and is a “whack job” were ruinous to her career and kept her in constant fear for her safety.

There’s a strong chance this investigation will lead nowhere. Trump’s Justice Department has already developed a reputation for bringing baseless, politicized cases that fall apart in court but still serve to appease the president’s sadistic aspirations. The logic is haywire: Not only is Trump reminding the public about E. Jean Carroll’s accusations, the case could be as doomed as the recent phony charges the department has brought against former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Trump is famously vindictive, obsessed with trying to rewrite history by relentlessly accusing people he has wronged of crimes against him. But the reported investigation into Carroll is about more than the president’s bottomless narcissism. It’s part of a larger, ongoing backlash against the #MeToo movement. Trump is just one of hundreds of accused men who are pulling out all stops to demonize women who speak out — and to scare other victims into silence.

The bad news is this backlash has been successful in many regards, turning abusers into victims in the public eye and painting those who take a stand against sexual violence as nags and scolds. But the fact that Trump and his allies feel the need to keep relitigating the Carroll case suggests the forces of misogyny aren’t as victorious as the mainstream narrative might suggest. Victims may not have the money or power that their abusers have, but they still have the truth, and even in our disinformation-addicted age, that can matter. Siccing the Justice Department on Carroll is not a sign of Trump’s strength, but of his inherent weakness. He is so eager to intimidate survivors that he’s willing to pay the price of reminding Americans that E. Jean Carroll — and the harrowing, compelling story she tells — exists.

The Epstein files have faded from the headlines in recent months, but they are still out there. Former attorney general Pam Bondi successfully evaded the law requiring her to release the trove of Justice Department documents pertaining to Trump’s self-proclaimed “best friend” Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. What has been released hasn’t shown direct evidence of Trump committing crimes against minors, but the picture that has emerged looks bad nonetheless. This includes a birthday card to Epstein, reportedly from Trump, that mentions having “certain things in common.” A former girlfriend of Epstein’s, Stacey Williams, has accused the president of sexual assault, and she has voiced fears that Epstein delivered her to Trump for that very purpose.

Millions of documents from the Epstein files remain unreleased, and the convicted sex offender’s victims have been outspoken in criticizing the Justice Department for this censorship. On Friday, Bondi is expected to sit for a congressional hearing about the Epstein files, but the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee has made sure her testimony will take place behind closed doors and not under oath. But with Democrats widely expected to win control over the House during the November midterms, giving them more power to subpoena people and documents, it will become far harder for Trump’s White House to continue the dodge-and-delay tactics. The lengthy string of sexual assault allegations against the president could surge back into the headlines.

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Creating an atmosphere of fear for victims isn’t just a matter of personal protection for Trump. His history shows a reflexive desire to protect the accused and attack the accusers, no matter how credible the allegations. Instinctually, Trump’s sympathies are with bullies. Ideologically, even he seems to understand that the best protection abusive men have against accountability is to stick together. The backlash against the #MeToo movement has generally shown that sexual predators create solidarity in a way the left can only dream of. Going after Carroll sends a message to sexually violent men of support from the president and his allies.

But feminists should not be cowed — and not just because this case, a version of which was already litigated in Carroll’s favor, is likely to crumble in court. There’s a valuable lesson about the power of speaking up. #MeToo was effective because large numbers of people stood by survivors. Its losses are due to the way misogynists hang together. Either way, the takeaway is that there is strength in numbers.

Backing Carroll is a way to repel the efforts to silence women who have a story to tell. By putting her name back in the news, Trump unwittingly gave #MeToo another moment to show that, actually, there are still a lot of people who care about stopping sexual violence.