E. Jean Carroll: Who Is The Journalist Suing Donald Trump After Accusing Him Of Rape?
E. Jean Carroll, a journalist who accused President Trump of raping her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s, has filed a lawsuit against him for defamation following his denials, CNBC News reports.
Here are some facts about the latest woman to file suit against Donald Trump for alleged sexual improprieties.
She Has Accused Donald Trump And Les Moonves Of Sexually Assaulting Her
In June 2019, Carroll accused Donald Trump, at the time a New York City real estate developer, of sexually assaulting her decades prior.
As she writes in The Cut, she says that in the fall of 1995 or the spring of 1996, she was at a Bergdorf Goodman department store when she ran into Donald Trump. Specifically, she claims that as she was walking out of the store, Trump recognized her, calling her “that advice lady.” They exchanged some playful banter about this and that, and eventually they wound up in the dressing rooms of the lingerie section.
“The moment the dressing-room door is closed, he lunges at me, pushes me against the wall, hitting my head quite badly, and puts his mouth against my lips… he holds me against the wall with his shoulder and jams his hand under my coat dress and pulls down my tights.”
She then went on to say that Trump penetrated her with his penis, either halfway or fully, before she managed to get him off her and was able to run away.
Trump has denied the allegations, and of even knowing Carroll, although Carroll has provided photographs showing her meeting Trump.
As for Moonves, Carroll claims that he assaulted her in an elevator at some point in the 1990s.
She’s Been Writing An Advice Column For Elle For Nearly 30 Years
Since 1993, Carroll has penned the “Ask E. Jean” column for Elle magazine. In her column, she dishes out advice about love, marriage, dating, sex, and relationships. In a 2013 Chicago Tribune roundup of the best of the best in the magazine industry, Carroll was deemed one of the “Five Best Columnists.”
She’s been praised for telling her female correspondents that they should “never ever” structure their lives around men, as well as for her compassionate tone when she writes to women experiencing difficult situations.
She’s Had A Lengthy And Award-Winning Career In Journalism
In addition to her work with Elle, Carroll has written extensively for other magazines, websites, and TV shows.
Saying that her focus is on the “heart of the heart of the country,” Carroll has written about regular Americans and their day-to-day lives. For example, in 1992, writing for Esquire, Carroll wrote about basketball groupies, and in 1994, she wrote about four white Indiana teenagers kicked out of school for dressing like black artists. She’s also written for Playboy, Outside, and Rolling Stone, among others.
For a 1995 Esquire piece, “The Loves Of My Life,” she tracked down her old boyfriends and moved in with them and their new wives. Despite the seemingly-thin premise, her editor, Bill Tonelli, raved that Carroll was “fundamentally incapable of being uninteresting.”
A 1998 piece for Playboy almost cost her life. Believing that women of the time period all complained that men were too sensitive and that some were craving a “primitive” man, she went to Papua New Guinea and befriended two local tribesmen and went hiking into the mountains with them. During the hike, she nearly died, she claims.
In addition to her work for magazines, Carroll has been a writer for Saturday Night Live and the short-lived, NBC-owned cable channel America’s Talking, for which she won an ACE Award for her Ask E. Jean show, which was based on her advice column.
In July 2019, she published her book, What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal.
She’s From Indiana And Was Once An Award-Winning Cheerleader
Born in Detroit in 1943, Carroll was raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, by her inventor father and her politician mother. She attended Indiana University where she pledged Pi Beta Phi and was a cheerleader. She was also a pageant contestant, winning “Miss Indiana University,” which she claims in an article in The Cut that she won for a dramatic reading of Dick and Jane. Representing Indiana University, she won the “Miss Cheerleader USA” title in 1964.