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Three days after Donald Trump announced he was running for president again in November of 2022, a woman named E. Jean Carroll announced she was launching a civil suit against him, alleging that he had sexually assaulted her more than 30 years ago in a department store in New York.
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When the case finally went to trial, Carroll was asked a basic question by her attorney: “When do you believe Donald Trump assaulted you?”
“The question, the when, the when, the date, has been something I’m constantly trying to pin down,” she responded.
Carroll would go on to say the assault occurred in 1994. Or, she later wondered, maybe it was 1995. She finally landed on the year 1996, though she still can’t recall which season it occurred. For his part, Trump says it never happened and doesn’t remember even meeting Carroll at all.
“She can’t tell you the date that she claims to have been raped. She can’t tell you the month that she claims to have been raped. She can’t tell you the season. She can’t even tell you the year that she claims to have been raped by Donald Trump,” defense attorney Joe Tacopina said during his opening statement in 2022.
In a logical world, that should have been the end of this case. Other fair questions: If something this traumatic had occurred, why didn’t Carroll open a police report at the time? Why didn’t she say anything about it from 1996 to 2019, and only wait to go public right before her book tour? Most glaringly, how could she not remember the year when it supposedly occurred?
But this was a Manhattan court system, so the show went on despite the statute of limitations expiring decades ago.
Before a verdict was reached, Carroll went on Anderson Cooper’s CNN show to talk about the alleged incident in what can only be described as a train wreck.
Cooper: “I think most people think of rape as a — it is a violent assault.”
Carroll: “I think most people think of rape as being sexy.”
Cooper (panicked): “Let’s take a short break…”
Carroll: “They think of the fantasies…”
Cooper (at DEFCON 1 at this point): “We’re going to take a quick break. If you can stick around, we’ll talk more on the other side.”
Carroll: “You’re fascinating to talk to.”
Potentially damaging stuff. One problem: Judge Lewis A. Kaplan would not allow the Cooper interview to be played in his Manhattan courtroom. “The introduction of the Anderson Cooper 360 video needlessly and confusingly would invite the jury to decide this case on the basis of the defendant’s view that those issues are open to discussion or reconsideration,” Kaplan, a Clinton appointee, said in his ruling. “They are not.”
Predictably, without any evidence whatsoever, no cameras, no clothing preserved, no witnesses, Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and was ordered to pay $83 million to Carroll.
Even more predictably, Carroll ran to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow to celebrate.
And during this end-zone dance dressed up as an interview, Maddow asked what Carroll planned to do with Trump’s money. And her answer spoke volumes about what this case was really all about.
“Yes, Rachel! Yes!” she answered giddily. “I have such, such great ideas for all the good I’m gonna do with this money! First thing, Rachel, you and I are going to go shopping. We’re going to get completely new wardrobes, new shoes. … Rachel, what do you want? Penthouse? It’s yours, Rachel! Penthouse and, uh, France? You want France? You wanna go fishing in France?
Ask yourself this: When have you ever heard a victim of sexual assault sound remotely like this? If this alleged incident was truly so horrible, would the victim ever brag on national television about how she was going to spend the money in the most elaborate way possible?
And she won’t stop talking about it. Here’s Carroll in a 2025 podcast interview with former MSNBC host Katie Phang.
“Where my pleasure comes is making [Trump] so pissed off he can’t think. We need to prick his little balloon constantly, and one of the ways to do that is to give his money to women’s reproductive rights,” Carroll said. “To binding up the wounds of democracy, which he is destroying by the very instant that we’re sitting here.”
Nope. Not political at all. And why isn’t Carroll giving the money to support victims of sexual assault instead of “women’s reproductive rights”?
By the way, back in 2012, the victim, who is E. Jean Carroll, called herself in a Facebook post “a massive Apprentice fan” and enjoyed the “witty competition.” Trump, of course, starred in The Apprentice. That’s quite an odd thing to say about a show featuring a guy who allegedly sexually assaulted you.
Fast forward to earlier this week: The Justice Department reportedly launched a criminal investigation into Carroll, alleging that she may have committed perjury during her deposition, but that report was shot down by a DOJ official on Thursday. Instead, the focus of the investigation appears to be financial support provided to Carroll and her case from Democratic mega-donor Reid Hoffman.
Per a CNN report: “In a 2022 videotaped deposition, Carroll told then-Trump attorney Alina Habba that no one else was paying for her legal fees. But two weeks before the trial, Carroll’s attorneys informed the judge and Trump’s lawyers that they had secured funding from Hoffman’s nonprofit. Carroll’s team declined to comment, while Hoffman could not be reached.”
The investigation is looking into possible crimes, including conspiracy, money laundering, and obstruction, sources told CBS News.
In a 2023 interview, Hoffman admitted to supporting Carroll’s legal effort against Trump through his nonprofit organization.
“Providing that support, I felt very happy to do,” the Silicon Valley billionaire said. “Speaking truth to power and having a woman’s voice be heard and not be squashed through the courts.”
But legacy media, which is reflexively anti-Trump on seemingly everything, is already painting the investigation as the president seeking revenge on Carroll. Per the same CNN report:
“The probe is the latest move in the department’s ceaseless, and somewhat strained, efforts to meet Trump’s demands to target his long-standing personal foes,” it read.
It gets no better in other publications:
The New York Times: “In Carroll Lawsuits Inquiry, Scrutiny Turns Toward Private Citizens Who Antagonized Trump”
The Daily Beast: “Trump Goons Launch Sick Revenge Plot Against His Sex Attack Victim”
The Economic Times: “Political Witch Hunt? DOJ turns heat on Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll in new criminal probe”
Again, she couldn’t remember the year it happened. She filed no police report at the time. She didn’t even talk about it until she had a book to sell decades later. The rules were changed in a deep-blue city to skirt the statute of limitations. Damning statements via the CNN interview weren’t allowed to be presented. And Carroll went on national television after winning to boast about where and how she was going to spend her newfound riches.
In the end, Trump still easily won reelection one year after the verdict was handed down. Most sane Americans outside of rapid partisans with Trump derangement syndrome saw this allegation for what it was: the continued weaponization of the justice system, which may be an irreversible political strategy at this point.
