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.
