Who is E. Jean Carroll, the woman who has made Donald Trump pay for his abuses?

The writer and columnist E. Jean Carroll has become this Tuesday the woman who has finally made former US President Donald Trump (2017-2021) pay for his sexual abuse, crimes for which he has been accused by numerous women over the years.

By civil means, Carroll has managed to get a jury to find Trump responsible for abusing her in the fitting rooms of a New York department store during the 1990s and to force him to pay compensation for that episode and for subsequently defaming her in response to his story.

Although the verdict does not recognize the rape that the writer denounced, it marks the first time that the former US president pays before the Justice for a case of sexual abuse.

This accountability comes after more than two dozen women have accused Trump of going overboard with them, with allegations ranging from harassment to rape and that the New York tycoon has always denied..

In the case of Carroll, it took decades for the matter to come before the Justice. The columnist was silent until 2019, when she denounced it in a memoir, at a time when Trump was already in the White House. Then, he took advantage of an open “legal window” in New York state that temporarily allowed victims of sex crimes to report cases that were already time barred..

At 79 years old, Carroll has finally achieved a verdict against Trump, who does not face jail, as it is a civil process, but who will have to pay him compensation of about five million dollars (about 4.56 million of euros today).

A process to “restore your good name”

Throughout the trial, the plaintiff's lawyers insisted at all times that she was not moving for money, but to “restore her good name”, especially after the former president responded to her accusations by denying the greatest and with total disdain. , prompting his defamation suit.

Trump disqualified Carroll, assuring that she was not his “type”, that all this was “a joke and a lie” and that what he was looking for was free fame to promote a book.

Fame, however, was something that Carroll had already enjoyed during his professional career, thanks mainly to a successful column that he had for years in Elle magazine or the television program that he presented in the mid-nineties..

Born in Detroit (Michigan) in 1943, Carroll grew up in the state of Indiana and studied there, being crowned Miss Indiana University in 1963 and a year later as Miss USA Cheerleader, but from a very young age her passion was writing.

According to what he told in an interview with USA Today, at the age of 12 he was dedicated to sending proposals for possible articles to American magazines..

A few years later, her stories appeared in prestigious publications such as Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, Vanity Fair or Playboy, where she was the first woman named contributing editor..

His journalism was distinguished by a strong literary character, often using the first person, and framed in the school of writers like Hunter S. Thompson, of whom he wrote a biography, and Tom Wolfe.

On television, Carroll wrote for Saturday Night Live in the 1980s and hosted his own show, Ask E, in the 1990s.. Jean, the same title that had its popular space in Elle.