{"id":675108,"date":"2026-05-31T01:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T01:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/675108\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T01:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T01:18:10","slug":"possible-e-jean-carroll-investigation-unbelievable-says-filmmaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/675108\/","title":{"rendered":"Possible E. Jean Carroll Investigation “Unbelievable” Says Filmmaker"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIvy Meeropol<\/a>, director of Ask E. Jean<\/a>, the documentary about E. Jean Carroll<\/a> who successfully sued Donald Trump for defamation and battery, is responding to reports the Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into Carroll.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cUnbelievable, yet not surprising,\u201d Meeropol says of the reports by the New York Times and CNN which said the Justice Department planned to examine whether Carroll committed perjury when she testified she was unaware of anyone financially supporting her lawsuits against Pres. Trump, which stemmed from an incident in the mid-1990s when Carroll said Trump sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store. It was later revealed billionaire Reid Hoffman, a cofounder of LinkedIn and fierce Trump critic, had picked up some of the legal costs of the suits.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe U.S. Attorney in Northern Illinois who is overseeing the matter issued a statement denying Carroll was the target of an investigation, but sources tell CNN and the New York Times that could change.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I first heard [of the reported investigation], I did yell like, \u2018Are you fucking kidding me?\u2019\u2019 Meeropol tells Deadline. \u201cI was shocked, but also not surprised because this is par for the course for [Trump]. It\u2019s just pure vindictiveness is how I see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Marquee<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMarquee of the NuArt Theatre in Los Angeles showing \u2018Ask E. Jean\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMatthew Carey<\/p>\n

\n\tWe spoke Friday night in Los Angeles where the filmmaker traveled for the theatrical opening of Ask E. Jean at Landmark\u2019s NuArt Theatre on the west side. In New York City, the documentary is being held over for a second week at IFC Center due to popular demand.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe started to realize that there were packed houses \u2014 even the matinees were drawing people,\u201d Meeropol says of the IFC extension. \u201cThen we heard we were being held over. I was thrilled and I hope we keep getting held over. There\u2019s been a lot of enthusiasm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"'Ask<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAbramorama<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film, which premiered at Telluride last year, explores how Carroll became a popular advice columnist, writing the \u201cAsk E. Jean\u201d column for Elle magazine for over 25 years, as well as hosting a show on the NBC cable network America\u2019s Talking that was also titled Ask E. Jean. In 2019, inspired by the #MeToo movement, Carroll published an article in New York magazine detailing her sexual assault allegations against Trump, and expanded on them in her book What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal. Trump responded by calling Carroll a liar and labeling her allegations a \u201cmade up scam.\u201d That prompted Carroll to file a defamation suit. After New York State passed a law allowing adult survivors of sexual assault to file civil suits beyond the statute of limitations, Caroll filed a second suit accusing him of battery and defamation. Judgments in those cases in her favor total almost $90 million.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Writer<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tWriter E. Jean Carroll waves as she leaves federal court after the verdict in her defamation case against Donald Trump in New York on January 26, 2024.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tANGELA WEISS\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s likely that the Supreme Court will have the final word on both cases,\u201d the New York Times writes. \u201cOne dispute is already before the justices. The second appears to be headed to the court in the coming months.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe has not paid out a dime,\u201d Meeropol says of Trump. \u201cAnd now it\u2019ll be at the Supreme Court.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe possible Justice Department investigation adds a new wrinkle to E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe probe is the latest move in the department\u2019s ceaseless, and somewhat strained, efforts to meet Trump\u2019s demands to target his long-standing personal foes,\u201d CNN writes<\/a>. The New York Times comments<\/a>, \u201cMs. Carroll and her benefactor [Reid Hoffman] are being scrutinized by a department in which naming and shaming, as opposed to securing convictions, is considered a legitimate aim of law enforcement. Since Mr. Trump has returned to office, he has not hesitated to single out his purported enemies as potential targets, even before criminal charges are in the offing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Director<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDirector Ivy Meeropol<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tManoli Figetakis\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tMeeropol tells Deadline, \u201cI definitely want to say that there\u2019s no merit to this so-called criminal investigation that I can tell and the E. Jean I know is an incredibly honest person. And you see the film, you\u2019re going to see the truth and he [Trump] doesn\u2019t like that he lost to her [in court].\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMeeropol doesn\u2019t necessarily see it as coincidental that reports of possible Justice Department action surfaced days after Ask E. Jean opened in New York.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe premiered the film just one week ago in New York City, got a lot of attention in New York City. Well, that\u2019s [Trump\u2019s] hometown,\u201d Meeropol notes. \u201cAnd I published an op-ed in the New York Times<\/a> [on May 20]. I talked about the challenges of making this film under this shadow of Trump. And then a week later, lo and behold, so I\u2019ll let you decide or let your readers\u2026 put that together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs my colleague Jill Goldsmith reported Friday<\/a>, Ask E. Jean is booked into more than 40 theaters over the next month. Abramorama is distributing the film, Goldsmith wrote, \u201cworking with nonprofit Theorem Media which built a large partner network and assembled an Influential Women Collective that includes Amber Tamblyn, Aurora James, Cecily Strong and Ann Shoket. Theorem\u2019s organic social campaign reached half a million views in the lead-up to and through the doc\u2019s opening.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ivy Meeropol, director of Ask E. Jean, the documentary about E. Jean Carroll who successfully sued Donald Trump…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[78422,43503,88,294388,206],"class_list":["post-675108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ask-e-jean","tag-e-jean-carroll","tag-entertainment","tag-ivy-meeropol","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}