She accused Trump of rape and is now being investigated by US Justice Department: Who is E Jean Carroll?

In what many are calling a vendetta, the US Justice Department (DOJ) has opened a criminal investigation into E Jean Carroll, the former magazine columnist who accused Donald Trump of sexual assault.

Prosecutors are looking into whether Carroll, 82, committed perjury in a 2022 deposition during her civil lawsuits against Trump, in which she said she did not accept outside financial support for her legal battles. However, months later, her lawyers revealed that a non-profit funded by Reid Hoffman, the billionaire LinkedIn co-founder, had paid some legal fees and expenses.

This probe is yet another example of how Trump repeatedly uses his Justice Department to take action against his enemies.

But what do we know of E Jean Carroll and what’s the investigation against her all about? Let us explain.

Who is E Jean Carroll?

Before she became world-famous for going up against Donald Trump,
E Jean Carroll was a well-known figure in New York’s journalism circles. She is perhaps best known for writing the “Ask E Jean” advice column for Elle magazine for over 20 years.

She was hired as a writer for Saturday Night Live, earning an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program in 1987.

Carroll soon became a part of the glitzy New York circuit in the 1980s and ’90s, attending events, premieres, and dinner parties. She was married to John Johnson, who was a big on-air personality back in the day. They divorced in 1990.

“In the literary journalism world, she was a player, which is saying a lot,” Lisa Chase, who edited Carroll when she wrote for Outside magazine, told USA Today. “There weren’t a lot of women who were being hired by men’s magazines. And she was.”

Why did Carroll and Trump face off against one another?

In 2019, a part of her book, “What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal,” was released, in which she outlined how Donald Trump raped her in a dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury department store, in the spring of 1996.

In the book, Carroll vividly describes her encounter with Trump at Bergdorf Goodman. She wrote that Trump asked her for help in selecting a gift for “a girl”. After a friendly flirtation, he (Trump) suddenly pinned her against the wall of a dressing room, pulled down her tights, and forcibly penetrated her with his penis.

After the book hit stands, two of Carroll’s friends confirmed to the New York Times that she told them about the incident shortly after it allegedly occurred.

Trump, who was then the US president, dismissed Carroll’s claims, calling them a “totally false accusation, and claimed not to even know her at all. When asked about a photo of him with the writer, which was published in a magazine, Trump scoffed and said, “Standing with my coat on in a line. Give me a break. With my back to the camera.”

In November 2019, Carroll went on to sue President Trump for defamation after he insisted she was lying about his attempt to rape her. Then in 2022, Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, told a federal judge that in addition to the defamation suit Carroll was bringing against Trump, she would be using New York’s Adult Survivors Act. This allows adults who were sexually assaulted to sue their alleged attackers decades after the original assault.

In a tearful testimony, she once again narrated the ordeal to the jury. Carroll recounted how the two of them made their way to the lingerie department, where Trump grabbed a grey bodysuit, asking her to try it on. She responded in jest that he should try it on instead.

She added that she didn’t imagine what would happen next. She recounted how Trump allegedly shoved her against the wall even as she struggled. He inserted his fingers and then his penis. She felt pain in the back of her head and her vagina, she told the court.

Later, in 2023, the jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll, but not raping her. They awarded the writer a total of $5 million in damages, which includes the defamation claim.

But the battle between
Trump and Carroll didn’t end there. In January 2024, a second jury ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million to the writer for defaming her in June 2019 when she initially came forward with her story.

From then to now, Carroll has yet to receive any of the
money from Trump. Just last week, a US court ruled that Trump did not have to pay the judgment, as he intends to appeal to the Supreme Court.

What’s the DOJ investigation against Carroll all about?

On Wednesday (May 27), the US Department of Justice, under Andrew S Boutros, has opened a
criminal investigation against Carroll to investigate if she perjured herself during the Trump trial.

At the heart of this investigation is the 2022 deposition statement made by her. In it, she claimed that she received no outside funding for her lawsuit. Six months later, before the trial started, it was revealed that billionaire Reid Hoffman had paid some legal fees and expenses.

Trump’s then attorney
Alina Habba told the court at the time that Carroll’s team “conspired to conceal the truth for nearly six months.”

However, the judge in the matter, Judge Lewis Kaplan, said he saw no issue with Carroll’s credibility and blocked the lawyers from asking about Hoffman’s funding.

This marks yet another case of Trump’s Justice Department launching criminal investigations into opponents. Prosecutors have investigated former FBI chief
James Comey, New York attorney general Letitia James, and Democratic members of Congress, including Adam Schiff and Ilhan Omar.

With inputs from agencies