"I do love revenge, I will say that,' adds Meeropol, 57, taking a sip from an iced Americano... 'I’d always loved revenge movies."

That's from "The woman behind E Jean Carroll: I do love revenge, I will say that/Ivy Meeropol has made a film starring one of Trump’s biggest foes. And she has her own beef with the president — dating back to her grandparents’ execution" (London Times).

Meeropol = Ivy Meeropol, the documentarian who made a movie about the man, Roy Cohn, who "helped to send her grandparents, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, to the electric chair, leaving her father orphaned at the age of ten." Now, Meeropol has a movie about E. Jean Carroll.

A few days ago, Carroll finally received the $5.6 million she won in her lawsuit against Trump, and Meeropol said: "This historic moment shows that our legal system — established almost 250 years ago to serve as a check against absolute power — still works. E Jean used to sign off from her television show in the mid-Nineties saying, 'Fate loves the fearless,' and it couldn’t be more appropriate today...."

Much has been made of the fact that Carroll is not a perfect MeToo victim.

Prompts that occurred to me the morning after I read the Vanity Fair excerpt of Olivia Nuzzi's "American Canto."

I am protecting you from A.I. writing. Every word below was written by me except “hex memoir” and “cursed-dick lit." Grok came up with those 2 terms. 

Here's my blog post from yesterday quoting the book and mocking the prose style. And here are Grok's answers to my prompts. I'm just sharing my prompts:

1. Olivia Nuzzi's "American Canto" belongs in a literary genre with E. Jean Carroll's "Hideous Men" [actual title: "What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal"].

2. It's a style of writing that is exaggerated and beset with literary pretension — used by a woman who had a brush with a powerful man. It's related to memoirs by women (the "Bell Jar" genre) but it's deployed against political characters that are of great importance to people who wouldn't otherwise read florid subjective verbiage.

3. “hex memoir” or “cursed-dick lit” — these are established terms? Quote sources.

4. I'm a woman myself, 74 years old, but I just want to say that American women read some godawful trash.

5. What's the feminist argument that it is NOT feminist to immerse oneself in this kind of reading?

"She is desperate for the book to not be a downer, to be a jolt instead. 'The pity fucking kills me,' she said. 'It kills my strength.'"

"She wanted the perception to be 'the opposite: She’s alive. She’s enjoying her life. This is great.' She went on: 'The book is highly comedic. And then it slides down into horrible tragedy and then comes back up to the punch line.' I’d finished the whole thing, but I had to ask what the punch line was. There were a handful, she said. But the most important one was that you’re never too old to get even."

From "E. Jean Carroll’s Uneasy Peace/In the year and a half since defeating Trump for the second time, she’s written a secret book — and learned to shoot" (NY Magazine).

At the end of this long article, there's some discussion of the security around her home. Asked if she worried about the danger of turning off her security lights so that the frogs that once mated in her swimming pool would sing again, as they had in the past:

"The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a written opinion upholding the $5 million award that the Manhattan jury granted to E. Jean Carroll for defamation and sexual abuse...."

"Trump skipped the trial after repeatedly denying the attack ever happened. But he briefly testified at a follow-up defamation trial earlier this year that resulted in an $83.3 million award. The second trial resulted from comments then-President Trump made in 2019 after Carroll first made the accusations publicly in a memoir. In its ruling, a three-judge panel of the appeals court rejected claims by Trump’s lawyers that trial Judge Lewis A. Kaplan had made multiple decisions that spoiled the trial, including his decision to allow two other women who had accused Trump of sexually abusing them to testify. The judge also had allowed the jury to view the infamous 'Access Hollywood' tape in which Trump boasted in 2005 about grabbing women’s genitals because when someone is a star, 'you can do anything.'"

AP reports.

"As someone who practiced press law for more than twenty years, and served as a senior executive of news organizations for just as long, I was shocked by the decision of ABC News last week..."

"... to pay $16 million to settle Donald Trump’s libel case over George Stephanopoulos’s This Week broadcast in March. The shock came, and still lingers, because I—and every experienced press lawyer not involved in the case with whom I have discussed it—considered the case one in which ABC was likely to eventually prevail. The decision to settle has been greeted by a lot of commentary, but almost no reporting of new facts. Understandably, that’s generated a good deal of hand-wringing about corporations 'bending a knee' or gloating about the humbling of legacy media or an arrogant press getting its comeuppance. But such speculation does little to explain what happened...."

Writes Richard J. Tofel, in "Questions ABC News Should Answer Following the $16 Million Trump Settlement/The decision to cave and apologize has unnerved American journalists. The network owes them an explanation" (Columbia Journalism Review).

As long as I'm talking about apologies...

"George Stephanopoulos and ABC apologize to Trump, are forced to pay $15 million to settle defamation suit/ABC News will pay $15 million as a charitable contribution to a Trump presidential foundation and museum" (Fox News).

The defamation had to do with the E. Jean Carroll lawsuit. Stephanopoulos incorrectly asserted "Donald Trump has been found liable for rape by a jury."

"When Mr. Biden referred to his political opponent, there were chants of 'Lock him up' — which the president did not discourage."

From "A Fiery Biden, Ignoring Critics, Attacks Trump to Chants of 'Lock Him Up'/Facing rising frustration in his party, the president brushed it off in an energetic speech in Michigan. Inside the room, at least, the Democratic mood was defiant, with cheers of 'Don’t go, Joe.'"

Mr. Biden thundered that his rival was a “convicted criminal” and a “business fraud,” and said that he had “raped” the writer E. Jean Carroll, whom Mr. Trump was found liable of sexually abusing by a civil court.

Should Trump sue Biden for defamation? Or is Trump's best move to say nothing while his opponent makes the mistake of becoming the bigger, more threatening blowhard?

You can watch the whole speech here. I listened to some of it live. I distanced myself because I hated the yelling. He's been criticized for speaking too softly — some say that's symptomatic of Parkinson's disease — so he's responding by speaking too loudly.

Can someone just be normal?

"Roberta A. Kaplan, the celebrated lawyer who took on former President Donald J. Trump... is stepping down from the law firm she founded..."

"... after clashing with her partners over her treatment of colleagues... Her departure was announced after The Times informed her personal lawyers that it was preparing to publish an article about Ms. Kaplan that would shine a light on complaints about what some employees said was an unprofessional office culture that she presided over.... Ms. Kaplan and her wife are deeply connected to the Democratic Party and she has been a heroic figure to many liberal activists.... Several people whom she worked with told The Times that she had insulted employees, inappropriately commented on their looks and threatened to derail people’s careers...."

Writes David Enrich, in "Prominent Lawyer Roberta Kaplan Departs Firm After Clash With Colleagues/The well-connected attorney, who founded a powerhouse firm at the dawn of the #MeToo era, has faced complaints that she mistreated and insulted other lawyers" (NYT).

Kaplan represented E. Jean Carroll against Donald Trump and won a $83 million verdict. The law firm she founded was supposedly "driven by a progressive mission and free of the macho culture" found in other law firms (as the NYT put it).

We're told that these complaints about Kaplan coincided with her response to Andrew Cuomo's request for her advice on how to fight allegations that he had committed sexual harassment. Interesting. I think Andrew Cuomo is due for a comeback. He should — as rumored — run for mayor of NYC. Perhaps Kaplan can help. Rehabilitate yourself and him in one grand endeavor.

"The drawing is prosaic, revealing asymmetrical breasts and bony middle-aged shoulders, but it also manifests a little poetry, suggesting that I’m a proud proto-crone."

Writes Sarah Thornton, quoted in "We Must Defend the Bust/Breasts are subject to capricious restrictions and contradictory norms. What would it take to set them free?" (The New Yorker). The New Yorker article is by Lauren Michele Jackson, writing about Thornton's book "Tits Up: What Sex Workers, Milk Bankers, Plastic Surgeons, Bra Designers, & Witches Tell Us About Breasts." Thornton was writing about an artist named Clarity Haynes.

This is the third appearance of the word "crone" on this blog. The first was on October 3, 2005, "Miers + cronyism," back when we were all talking about Harriet Miers: "I wonder how long it will take for someone to call Miers a 'crone.' Too sexist, you think? Clearly, you haven't read as many Mary Daly books as I have!"

The second was just about a year ago, when we were all talking about E. Jean Carroll, "My life goes on... I will go on living in this tiny cabin. But one thing has changed. I am going to dedicate myself to somehow figuring out a way for the women..."

"The judge later tried... to argue that the jury 'implicitly' found Trump liable for rape...."

The dishonesty of Stephanopoulos' interview is striking. He says 10 times that Trump was found 'liable for rape' in the E Jean Carroll case. He says that the jury found Trump 'liable for rape.' In fact, the jury specifically found Trump *not* liable for rape. It found him liable… https://t.co/AGr0WWnaMS

— Byron York (@ByronYork) March 10, 2024

"Donald J. Trump might one day have to pay E. Jean Carroll the $83.3 million she was awarded, but that day is not today...."

"Mr. Trump can pay the $83.3 million to the court, which will hold the money while the appeal is pending. This is what he did last year when a jury ordered him to pay Ms. Carroll $5.5 million in a related case. Or, Mr. Trump can try to secure a bond.... It would... require Mr. Trump to find a financial institution willing to lend him a large sum of money at a time when he is in significant legal jeopardy.... He has enough cash to cover the verdict in various accounts, a person close to him said. In recent years, Mr. Trump has unloaded several assets, including his Washington hotel, which sold for $375 million.... The New York attorney general is seeking a $370 million penalty from the former president and his family business as part of a civil fraud trial that wrapped up this month...."

The NYT reports.

Meanwhile: "Rudy Giuliani targets Donald Trump for ‘unpaid legal fees’ in new bankruptcy filing/Mr Giuliani filed for bankruptcy last month after he was ordered to pay $148m to Georgia election workers he defamed" (Independent). The filing lists a "possible claim for unpaid legal fees against Donald J Trump" in an amount that is "undetermined."

"Jury Orders Trump to Pay [E. Jean] Carroll $83.3 Million for Years of Defamation."

The NYT reports.

"Following the E. Jean Carroll trial feels like watching one 80-year-old woman realize there is just nothing she can do to rid herself of this omnipresence..."

"... and then realizing that we are, all of us, that 80-year-old woman. That we have been, for some time, subsumed and consumed by one man and his very strong MAGA base. In the future when sociologists and historians study this period of time, I wonder if this will be the most lasting psychological stain. Not any specific acts, but the general weight, the inescapable pull, the black hole, the fog, the fug, the reality that our atmosphere is coated in a thin, smoggy layer of Donald Trump...."

Writes Monica Hesse, in "E. Jean Carroll used to be somebody/Once you enter Trump’s world, your own world evaporates" (WaPo).

Trump is responsible for whatever bad acts he's committed, such as, if Carroll is right, raping a woman in a department store dressing room, but subsuming and consuming the entire world and coating it with thin smog... that's something that you're doing to yourself.

"[E. Jean] Carroll was also in the courtroom on Tuesday. She is eighty years old. She made her name as a sassy, knowing, charming advice columnist..."

"... for Elle in the heyday of women’s magazines. All Tuesday morning, she calmly sat a few feet from the man who’d attacked her, who has promised to take revenge on his enemies if he is reëlected President this November. [Her lawyer] said that Carroll now sleeps with a loaded gun next to her bed."

From "The Donald Trump Doom Loop/Sitting in a courtroom, feet away from the woman he sexually assaulted, the ex-President keeps trying to outrun the consequences of his own bad acts" (The New Yorker).

***

Yesterday, someone sent me the video I'm embedding below. I can see that people on X have been sharing it and saying it shows E. Jean Carroll is "a nut job."

I disagree. Judge for yourself:

Donald Trump is not allowed to call his accuser E Jean Carroll a nut job. So we can do it for him. pic.twitter.com/X6kPqOsHdY

— Big Fish (@BigFish3000) January 17, 2024

I see a woman with a cute/cutesy, quirky self-presentation who is leaning into an arty, hippie vibe.

I have no idea what really happened between her and Trump, but I do think that once the first trial ended, and she won (to some extent), he needed to accept the outcome of the legal process. It was a defamation case, brought on by his accusing her of lying. To go back to the assertion that she lied about their encounter is a new defamation, and now he needs to pay for that.

Even if you were trying anew to prove that she lied about the encounter, her literary shed, Annie Hall clothing, and painting rocks and trees blue have precious little probative value.

"[Trump] said 'witch hunt' and 'it was a con job,' loudly enough that jurors could hear, said Shawn Crowley, one of [E. Jean] Carroll’s lawyers."

"Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who had sparred all morning with Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, over her objections to Ms. Carroll’s testimony, appeared to be losing his patience. 'Mr. Trump has a right to be present here,' Judge Kaplan said. 'That right can be forfeited and it can be forfeited if he is disruptive, which is what has been reported to me, and if he disregards court orders.' He then addressed the former president directly. 'Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial,' he said. Mr. Trump, who had spent most of the morning shaking his head during Ms. Carroll’s testimony, threw up his hands. 'I would love it,' he said."

From "Judge Threatens to Eject Trump From Carroll Trial After His Complaints/The former president’s right to be at his defamation trial 'can be forfeited,' the judge warned. E. Jean Carroll is seeking $10 million in damages for his denials that he sexually assaulted her" (NYT).

"I would love it"! Sarcastic? Or he's basically saying: Exclude me and you will be reinforcing my idea that I'm being persecuted. The people will see it as a witch hunt. A con job.

"Politics seeped into the courtroom as the judge asked whether potential jurors had voted in recent presidential elections.... Had they attended Mr. Trump’s rallies?"

"Had they contributed to the campaigns of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton or Joseph R. Biden Jr.? Or of Mr. Trump? Jurors were asked if they belonged to fringe groups like QAnon, Antifa, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. None answered yes. When Judge Kaplan asked if anyone thought that Mr. Trump was being treated unfairly by the court system, at least a couple of jurors said yes and for an instant, Mr. Trump half-raised his hand, seemingly more a reflex than an act of defiance...."

From "Jury Selection in Trump’s Defamation Trial Has Watchful Eyes: His/As E. Jean Carroll, whom Donald Trump assaulted decades ago, seeks millions to deter his verbal attacks, the former president tries to make a political virtue of his legal travails" (NYT).

Note the scope of this trial: "The judge has said that Mr. Trump may not dispute in court Ms. Carroll’s version of the events that occurred at Bergdorf’s — as he frequently does in posts on his Truth Social website, on the campaign trail and recently, in a news conference in Manhattan."

After winning the Iowa caucuses last night, Trump is using Truth Social this morning to put up 30+ posts in a row about E. Jean Carroll.

Now, the timing is foisted on him. Today, the new E. Jean Carroll defamation trial begins.

There's another trial because he continued to deny certain facts that had been established at the first trial, so he, arguably, re-defamed her. He doesn't seem too worried, this morning, about re-re-defaming her. 

Here's his Truth Social feed. Just go there now and scroll. I can't embed everything. Most of it is re-posting things she's written. Like this:

But some of it is written-out text like this (and I assume it will be used against him at trial):

"The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was 'raped' within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean..."

"... that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word 'rape.' Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that."

Wrote Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, quoted in "Judge clarifies: Yes, Trump was found to have raped E. Jean Carroll" (WaPo).

Kaplan said New York’s legal definition of “rape” is “far narrower” than the word is understood in “common modern parlance.” The former requires forcible, unconsented-to penetration with one’s penis. But he said that the conduct the jury effectively found Trump liable for — forced digital penetration — meets a more common definition of rape. He cited definitions offered by the American Psychological Association and the Justice Department, which in 2012 expanded its definition of rape to include penetration “with any body part or object.” 

Read the judge's opinion here.  Excerpt:

"My life goes on... I will go on living in this tiny cabin. But one thing has changed. I am going to dedicate myself to somehow figuring out a way for the women..."

"... who don’t have my platform to hold men accountable. Robbie and I are going to put our heads together. That’s how my life is going to change. I’m a crone. I’m an elderly woman on a mountaintop. But I think we’ve got a few good years left to figure out a way to end the culture of sexual violence. That’s what I want to do."

Said E. Jean Carroll, quoted in "E. Jean Carroll Discusses Trump’s Comeuppance/Since losing a civil case to the journalist, who accused him of sexual abuse and defamation, Trump has doubled down on his attacks" (The New Yorker). Kaplan is seeking additional punitive damages — not a gag order.

We're told:

Carroll is seventy-nine. She just adopted a new dog, a Great Pyrenees. “She’s right here, Miss Havisham, Sham for short,” she said, gesturing offscreen.

"Robbie" is the lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, who's quoted saying she considered seeking a gag order when Trump, having lost in the defamation case continued to repeat the defamation. But she didn't want the "First Amendment concerns," and she's seeking additional punitive damages instead.

The dog is named Miss Havisham — that is, the character in "Great Expectations" who devotes herself extravagantly to her disappointment in men. At trial, there was an unsuccessful attempt to introduce evidence that she'd once named a dog/cat "Vagina." 

"E. Jean Carroll Seeks New Damages From Trump for Comments on CNN."

The NYT reports.

She's doing what she obviously should, as I discussed here on May 11th. She has a judgment in her favor, and he is repeating the statements that have been found to be defamatory.