❓WHAT HAPPENED: E. Jean Carroll’s allegations of sexual assault and defamation against President Donald J. Trump, and related legal battles, are the focus of a new documentary, Ask E Jean, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: E. Jean Carroll, President Trump, director Ivy Meeropol, and Trump attorney Alina Habba.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The documentary premiered at the Telluride Film Festival this year, covering events from Carroll’s lawsuits against Trump.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Fifty percent of my answers were bad. I thought I knew everything at the time, particularly about women in the workplace. If you want to get ahead, use your looks.” – E. Jean Carroll
🎯IMPACT: The film sheds light on Carroll’s lawfare campaign against Trump, but may provide an opening for President Trump to file his own defamation case.
A new documentary chronicling E. Jean Carroll’s lawfare campaign against President Donald J. Trump debuted at the Telluride Film Festival this week, as questions about Carroll’s motivations and credibility continue. The film, Ask E Jean, directed by Ivy Meeropol, granddaughter of convicted Soviet spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, centers on Carroll’s two lawsuits against Trump: one for defamation and another for sexual assault, stemming from her claim that Trump assaulted her in a department store in the mid-1990s.
Trump has denied the allegations and is appealing both verdicts, which resulted in combined damages of nearly $90 million.
Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, gave an interview to Variety alongside Meeropol on the documentary. In it, Carroll describes the deposition process, led by Trump’s then-attorney Alina Habba, as grueling. “Most people don’t know that you have to go to a trial before you go to a trial,” Carroll said. She said Habba was “brutal,” raising arguments that made the deposition “particularly challenging.” Habba now serves as Acting U.S. Attorney and Special Assistant to the U.S. Attorney General.
Carroll has herself acknowledged that elements of her story appear strange. For instance, she claims it took place in a prestigious New York City department store, in changing rooms on a busy floor that are normally locked and watched over by an attendant. She claims that, inexplicably, the floor was deserted and the changing rooms unmanned and unlocked at the time of the attack.
The 81-year-old has accused many men and boys of attacking her over the years, including a small boy, a babysitter’s boyfriend, a camp counsellor, a dentist, an unnamed college date, an unnamed former boss, and former CBS executive Les Moonves. She has seemingly never reported any of them to the police—including President Trump, whom she has only pursued civilly.
The documentary positions Carroll as a feminist figure confronting powerful men. However, critics argue the film glosses over key details about Carroll’s motivations. She previously admitted in court that her claims about Trump gained traction only after her memoir failed to sell. “The book was not selling, so I tried to talk about [Trump],” she testified. She also confirmed that anti-Trump attorney George Conway encouraged her to file the lawsuit after explaining that a civil case would allow the decades-old allegation to be heard in court.
In April 2024, Carroll also came under scrutiny when police seized an unregistered firearm from her home, following a report by The National Pulse.
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