I am so very proud of E. Jean Carroll for accomplishing what no woman has done before -- held that smarmy degenerate accountable. There have been settlements, NDAs, etc, but she got judgment. May she live long and prosper.
Sue...you put your finger on the EXACT thing that matters...and it's the thing almost everyone skips right past.
Settlements get buried. NDAs get signed and sealed and forgotten. That's just silence with a price tag...and a man who can afford ENOUGH of it...can make almost anything disappear.
What Carroll got is a different animal entirely. A JUDGEMENT. Twelve people in a room...on the RECORD...in the PUBLIC RECORD forever...saying it happened.
You can't NDA a verdict. You can't quietly settle away...a thing a jury ALREADY found. That's the line between making a story go away...and making it PERMANENT...and SHE made it permanent.
You're right to be proud of her. Seven years of being called a liar...and she outlasted EVERY stall they threw at her.
Jack is correct: the mechanism that finally worked here was written years before it was needed, by people who assumed bad faith and built accordingly.
But I’d draw out what the piece leaves as texture rather than argument. Note the postscript, because it does more work than the headline. Three justices he appointed himself declined to note a dissent. Not “ruled against him” — declined to even flag disagreement. That is a different fact than “he lost.” It means the mechanisms he spent years trying to stock with loyalists still, in this instance, would not certify the story he was telling.
File that alongside the reputation. This is a man whose relationship to litigation is not incidental — it is a documented career-long strategy, going back decades, of using courts and lawyers as instruments of delay rather than forums for resolution. Note what that reputation is built on: outlast the plaintiff, exhaust the budget, wait for the news cycle to move. That reputation is precisely what makes paragraph 8 significant. It wasn’t drafted for a typical defendant. It was drafted for this one, by people who had studied the pattern and built a clause specifically immune to it.
Note the contract language itself, because Jack is right to center it. Not a promise. Not a settlement premised on trust. A signed condition — release upon Supreme Court denial — with no discretion left for anyone to exercise later. That is the entire mechanism. Every other lever he pulled in 2026 — the rehearing petition, the “proceedings remain pending” argument, the Tuesday-night filing — depended on there being some ambiguity left to exploit. There wasn’t. The document had already closed that door in 2023.
And file Carroll’s seven years separately, because delay only works as a strategy against someone assumed to tire first. She went public in 2019. Called a liar, mocked publicly, dragged through appeal after appeal, and the assumption embedded in his entire legal strategy — that she would settle, quiet down, or simply run out of time before he ran out of money — never came due. The delay was a bet placed against her specifically. She was the one variable his lawyers could not model correctly.
Note what that means going forward, since this is not the only debt outstanding. The $83 million case is still in appeals, and Jack is right that the same playbook will run again: delay, midnight filings, a search for any doctrine that buys another month. The difference the first case establishes is a data point, not a guarantee — evidence that the playbook has a ceiling, not proof that it always will.
That is the pattern worth filing, more than the receipt itself: institutions built to resist capture sometimes still resist it, even after years of trying to stock them otherwise. It is not the rule. It is the exception that the rule depends on to still look like a rule at all.
Jane...Yep! Three justices he appointed didn't rule against him...they declined to even flag DISAGREEMENT.
You're right that those are two different facts. One is losing. The other is your own hand-picked mechanism...REFUSING to certify your story. That second one is FAR more damning...and...a hell of a lot more hopeful.
Your read on paragraph 8 sharpens mine: it wasn't drafted for a defendant. It was drafted for THIS defendant...by people who'd studied the PATTERN...and built a clause immune to it.
Delay-as-strategy...is a bet placed against a specific person's stamina. Carroll was the ONE variable...his lawyers couldn't model. Seven years...and the assumption embedded in the whole approach; "she'll tire first"...simply NEVER came due.
Your closing is the part I really like: institutions built to resist capture sometimes still resist it...even after years of stocking them otherwise. Not the rule. The exception the rule depends on...to still LOOK like a rule.
That's the honest frame; a ceiling demonstrated...not a guarantee issued. The $83 million playbook will run again...and the data point isn't proof...just evidence that the PATTERN has a floor it CAN'T dig below.
Keep filing the dates. You read the fine print like a champ.
Jack — I’ve been waiting years for a Substack that actually tracks this stuff the way you do. The Carroll piece landed exactly right: the receipts, the contract language, the seven years of delay finally hitting its ceiling. Thank you for doing the work most people won’t.
Jane...this one means a lot...and I read it twice. Thank you.
You clocked the exact thing I was reaching for.
The story was never really the verdict...it was the contract language...and seven years of delay...finally hitting a ceiling somebody built on purpose back in 2023.
Most people saw a headline. You saw the MECHANISM. That's the whole reason I do this the way I do it.
Honestly, you being here...actually backing the work...that is what lets me keep doing it this way. No ads...no sponsor deciding what I'm allowed to chase. Just readers...who decided it was worth it.
Very uplifting. I heard the news and was delighted. I hope the other settlement achieves a similar disposition, I suspect her attorneys aren’t pro bono. I usually don’t say “they earned it” but in this case hell yeah.
I felt the same when the news broke. You nailed it about the attorneys; nobody's doing this for free...and after everything...the payout is MORE than earned.
Fingers crossed the other settlement lands the same damn way!
I have been following the E Jean story forever and also saw her on Joyce Vance Substack and Mary trump’s. I knew she would not cave! She is a true warrior. Can’t wait till she gets the defamation money! She plans to donate most if not all the money to lift people up
Teri...you've been in this from the start...and it shows!
Vance and Mary Trump are exactly the RIGHT rooms to be reading this in; you've been getting it from people who actually understand the MACHINERY...not just the headline.
And "true warrior" is the perfect phrase. Seven years of being called a liar...a hoax.. "not my type" ...and she never even BLINKED. Most people fold at year two. She just kept walking toward it!
The big $83 million defamation award is still ahead...still being fought...so keep your seat:)
No wonder t hates women….. the dude (in the words of popular tv show) was outwitted, outplayed and outlasted by a completely badass woman and her equally badass lawyers! This is oh so satisfying in so many ways.
Yes to everything outlined in the article! Yes, yes, yes that the system held, the stacking of the courts didn’t work, the delays didn’t work and the prescient, pattern reading setup by the badass lawyers was a gotcha in the end. All of it. And my heart is so happy E Jean has finally been paid. It does not come close to truly compensating her for the damage she has endured at his hands… and…. it IS a victory. Truly a vindication and very well deserved.
My sincere hope is she has a blast using the money any way she sees fit. A while back I read that her plan was to donate the money to causes t finds abhorrent. My thoughts on that? You go!! 👍
Thanks, Jack! It’s been a rough week or so. This news and your analysis is a very bright spot!!
Deb..."Outwitted, outplayed, outlasted" ...that's EXACTLY it...and I wish I'd put it that way in the piece myself.
You nailed the part that made this so satisfying: it wasn't luck...it was a trap laid patiently by lawyers who saw the PATTERN coming a mile off. The delays and the maneuvering were supposed to work...and they just…didn't.
And...yes...the money will NEVER balance the ledger...but...it's a real vindication...and the idea of her spending it EXACTLY as she pleases...is its own kind of poetry.
Sorry it's been a rough stretch. I'm really glad this one landed as a bright spot ...for BOTH of us.
It appears it's the women who take it to the mattresses with Trump. You have to fight the godfather mob boss with mob boss tactics. The women did not disappoint. Well done E.Jean and Robbie! You showed the men what a spine looks like!
And not only that, but the orange megalomaniac cannot keep his mouth shut (or his fingers quiet on his stupid messaging app) as he has defamed her again!! Going once! Going twice! How about the third strike & you’re out!!!
Question: if the $83 million is for defamation, does that mean it’s only $5.8 million for “sexual abuse?” Also know as rape. I mean, sticks and stones will break my bones . . .
Ramona...fair thing to be angry about...but the math is actually two separate cases... not one lopsided one. I had to do a little work to get the answer to your question...but I think I got what we need.
The $83.3M (2024)....was purely a defamation judgment...and...most of it, $65M...was PUNITIVE: the sum her lawyer said was needed to "make him stop," NOT a measure of the harm.
The $5.8M is the 2023 case...and it bundled everything: $2M for the sexual abuse and $3M for defamation there too.
As for "abuse" instead of "rape" ...that's a quirk of New York's narrow legal definition, which the judge REQUIRED the jury to use.
The judge later made a point of saying...the jury's finding amounts to RAPE as the word is commonly understood.
So...it's not that the system valued the assault at pennies on the dollar; it's that the huge number...was a punishment for him REFUSING...for years...to shut the f*ck up.
Good morning, Jack! Thank you so much for making the effort to answer this question. While both of these are serious crimes, I am now pondering what the experience of defamation may have been like for E. Jean Carroll. In a way, it prolongs the duration of the original wound. I have heard trauma survivors say that they re-experience the attack every time it is spoken of. Pair that with the muscle memory of trauma and she really must have suffered. I’m glad she got some justice. Thanks again!
Note: The assault actually occurred in late ‘95 or early ‘96. At that time New York defined rape as penile penetration, i.e., fingers were not sufficient for a rape charge. I think it was in 2019, that she went public and, of course all his lies resulted in the first defamation case, then followed by the second bigger case (88.3 million?) and apparently that’s still not enough for him to shut his lying lips. I dearly hope she & her lawyer go for a third defamation case. It would completely serve him right as he keeps asking for it!!!
I am so very proud of E. Jean Carroll for accomplishing what no woman has done before -- held that smarmy degenerate accountable. There have been settlements, NDAs, etc, but she got judgment. May she live long and prosper.
Sue...you put your finger on the EXACT thing that matters...and it's the thing almost everyone skips right past.
Settlements get buried. NDAs get signed and sealed and forgotten. That's just silence with a price tag...and a man who can afford ENOUGH of it...can make almost anything disappear.
What Carroll got is a different animal entirely. A JUDGEMENT. Twelve people in a room...on the RECORD...in the PUBLIC RECORD forever...saying it happened.
You can't NDA a verdict. You can't quietly settle away...a thing a jury ALREADY found. That's the line between making a story go away...and making it PERMANENT...and SHE made it permanent.
You're right to be proud of her. Seven years of being called a liar...and she outlasted EVERY stall they threw at her.
May she live long and prosper...indeed!
-Jack
Jack is correct: the mechanism that finally worked here was written years before it was needed, by people who assumed bad faith and built accordingly.
But I’d draw out what the piece leaves as texture rather than argument. Note the postscript, because it does more work than the headline. Three justices he appointed himself declined to note a dissent. Not “ruled against him” — declined to even flag disagreement. That is a different fact than “he lost.” It means the mechanisms he spent years trying to stock with loyalists still, in this instance, would not certify the story he was telling.
File that alongside the reputation. This is a man whose relationship to litigation is not incidental — it is a documented career-long strategy, going back decades, of using courts and lawyers as instruments of delay rather than forums for resolution. Note what that reputation is built on: outlast the plaintiff, exhaust the budget, wait for the news cycle to move. That reputation is precisely what makes paragraph 8 significant. It wasn’t drafted for a typical defendant. It was drafted for this one, by people who had studied the pattern and built a clause specifically immune to it.
Note the contract language itself, because Jack is right to center it. Not a promise. Not a settlement premised on trust. A signed condition — release upon Supreme Court denial — with no discretion left for anyone to exercise later. That is the entire mechanism. Every other lever he pulled in 2026 — the rehearing petition, the “proceedings remain pending” argument, the Tuesday-night filing — depended on there being some ambiguity left to exploit. There wasn’t. The document had already closed that door in 2023.
And file Carroll’s seven years separately, because delay only works as a strategy against someone assumed to tire first. She went public in 2019. Called a liar, mocked publicly, dragged through appeal after appeal, and the assumption embedded in his entire legal strategy — that she would settle, quiet down, or simply run out of time before he ran out of money — never came due. The delay was a bet placed against her specifically. She was the one variable his lawyers could not model correctly.
Note what that means going forward, since this is not the only debt outstanding. The $83 million case is still in appeals, and Jack is right that the same playbook will run again: delay, midnight filings, a search for any doctrine that buys another month. The difference the first case establishes is a data point, not a guarantee — evidence that the playbook has a ceiling, not proof that it always will.
That is the pattern worth filing, more than the receipt itself: institutions built to resist capture sometimes still resist it, even after years of trying to stock them otherwise. It is not the rule. It is the exception that the rule depends on to still look like a rule at all.
#HOLDFAST
Jane...Yep! Three justices he appointed didn't rule against him...they declined to even flag DISAGREEMENT.
You're right that those are two different facts. One is losing. The other is your own hand-picked mechanism...REFUSING to certify your story. That second one is FAR more damning...and...a hell of a lot more hopeful.
Your read on paragraph 8 sharpens mine: it wasn't drafted for a defendant. It was drafted for THIS defendant...by people who'd studied the PATTERN...and built a clause immune to it.
Delay-as-strategy...is a bet placed against a specific person's stamina. Carroll was the ONE variable...his lawyers couldn't model. Seven years...and the assumption embedded in the whole approach; "she'll tire first"...simply NEVER came due.
Your closing is the part I really like: institutions built to resist capture sometimes still resist it...even after years of stocking them otherwise. Not the rule. The exception the rule depends on...to still LOOK like a rule.
That's the honest frame; a ceiling demonstrated...not a guarantee issued. The $83 million playbook will run again...and the data point isn't proof...just evidence that the PATTERN has a floor it CAN'T dig below.
Keep filing the dates. You read the fine print like a champ.
#HOLDFAST
-Jack
Jack — I’ve been waiting years for a Substack that actually tracks this stuff the way you do. The Carroll piece landed exactly right: the receipts, the contract language, the seven years of delay finally hitting its ceiling. Thank you for doing the work most people won’t.
Jane...this one means a lot...and I read it twice. Thank you.
You clocked the exact thing I was reaching for.
The story was never really the verdict...it was the contract language...and seven years of delay...finally hitting a ceiling somebody built on purpose back in 2023.
Most people saw a headline. You saw the MECHANISM. That's the whole reason I do this the way I do it.
Honestly, you being here...actually backing the work...that is what lets me keep doing it this way. No ads...no sponsor deciding what I'm allowed to chase. Just readers...who decided it was worth it.
-Jack
Brilliant HKJANE!! Great article Jack!!
Thank you, Morgan.
-Jack
Piercingly astute responses to Jack’s greatly appreciated articles. Thank you.
Thank you, Jack!
E. Jean...YOU...are most welcome!
-Jack
Robbie Kaplan is a brilliant lawyer. E. Jean Carroll is smart, and funny, and kind, and I say BRAVA to both. Set the mousetrap and caught a rat.
Set the mousetrap and caught a rat...is a fact, Roberta!
Yes...Robbie Kaplan IS a brilliant lawyer. I like her...a LOT.
-Jack
Very uplifting. I heard the news and was delighted. I hope the other settlement achieves a similar disposition, I suspect her attorneys aren’t pro bono. I usually don’t say “they earned it” but in this case hell yeah.
Randy...hell yeah is right.
I felt the same when the news broke. You nailed it about the attorneys; nobody's doing this for free...and after everything...the payout is MORE than earned.
Fingers crossed the other settlement lands the same damn way!
Thanks for reading...and for being here.
-Jack
I have been following the E Jean story forever and also saw her on Joyce Vance Substack and Mary trump’s. I knew she would not cave! She is a true warrior. Can’t wait till she gets the defamation money! She plans to donate most if not all the money to lift people up
Teri...you've been in this from the start...and it shows!
Vance and Mary Trump are exactly the RIGHT rooms to be reading this in; you've been getting it from people who actually understand the MACHINERY...not just the headline.
And "true warrior" is the perfect phrase. Seven years of being called a liar...a hoax.. "not my type" ...and she never even BLINKED. Most people fold at year two. She just kept walking toward it!
The big $83 million defamation award is still ahead...still being fought...so keep your seat:)
-Jack
I believe she will get that and with interest . It will absolutely make drumpf go berserk🤣🤣🤣. Could not happen to a more despicable being!!!
I so agree!!!
A win for ALL women. Gawd, how I love her! A warrior, indeed!
Rae...you're right on ALL of those!
-Jack
Me too!
No wonder t hates women….. the dude (in the words of popular tv show) was outwitted, outplayed and outlasted by a completely badass woman and her equally badass lawyers! This is oh so satisfying in so many ways.
Yes to everything outlined in the article! Yes, yes, yes that the system held, the stacking of the courts didn’t work, the delays didn’t work and the prescient, pattern reading setup by the badass lawyers was a gotcha in the end. All of it. And my heart is so happy E Jean has finally been paid. It does not come close to truly compensating her for the damage she has endured at his hands… and…. it IS a victory. Truly a vindication and very well deserved.
My sincere hope is she has a blast using the money any way she sees fit. A while back I read that her plan was to donate the money to causes t finds abhorrent. My thoughts on that? You go!! 👍
Thanks, Jack! It’s been a rough week or so. This news and your analysis is a very bright spot!!
Deb..."Outwitted, outplayed, outlasted" ...that's EXACTLY it...and I wish I'd put it that way in the piece myself.
You nailed the part that made this so satisfying: it wasn't luck...it was a trap laid patiently by lawyers who saw the PATTERN coming a mile off. The delays and the maneuvering were supposed to work...and they just…didn't.
And...yes...the money will NEVER balance the ledger...but...it's a real vindication...and the idea of her spending it EXACTLY as she pleases...is its own kind of poetry.
Sorry it's been a rough stretch. I'm really glad this one landed as a bright spot ...for BOTH of us.
Thank you for reading...and for being here.
-Jack
It appears it's the women who take it to the mattresses with Trump. You have to fight the godfather mob boss with mob boss tactics. The women did not disappoint. Well done E.Jean and Robbie! You showed the men what a spine looks like!
#HoldFast
Great article, Jack!
She out waited him and it paid off… big time. I’m so happy for her and so proud of her.
What she did took a lot of courage and E. Jean Carroll has it in spades. She’ll outlast him on the $83 million too. I’d put money on it.
Whoo hoo!
#Holdfast
~Susan
Thank you, Susan!
And I'll take that bet...I'd put money on her outlasting him on the $83 million too.
PATIENCE turned out to be her superpower: she simply REFUSED to be worn down... and it paid off exactly the way it should have.
Proud of her...right alongside you. Whoo hoo indeed.
#Holdfast
-Jack
She’s quite a lady!
And not only that, but the orange megalomaniac cannot keep his mouth shut (or his fingers quiet on his stupid messaging app) as he has defamed her again!! Going once! Going twice! How about the third strike & you’re out!!!
All true!
JACK…surprise, surprise, surprise…Trump’s attorney’s have filed an “emergency request” for a stay to the judge’s order! ENOUGH ALREADY!!!
Sure enough, Christie...and not only did WE know he would, so did E.Jean and her lawyer...and they were prepared!
I'm betting the money will be in her hands sooner than later...and that Trump will lose on the emergency request. I'll be watching closely.
-Jack
FINALLY…about damn time!!
It certainly was, Christie!
-Jack
#HoldFast #FightOn
#YES!!
-Jack
Question: if the $83 million is for defamation, does that mean it’s only $5.8 million for “sexual abuse?” Also know as rape. I mean, sticks and stones will break my bones . . .
Ramona...fair thing to be angry about...but the math is actually two separate cases... not one lopsided one. I had to do a little work to get the answer to your question...but I think I got what we need.
The $83.3M (2024)....was purely a defamation judgment...and...most of it, $65M...was PUNITIVE: the sum her lawyer said was needed to "make him stop," NOT a measure of the harm.
The $5.8M is the 2023 case...and it bundled everything: $2M for the sexual abuse and $3M for defamation there too.
As for "abuse" instead of "rape" ...that's a quirk of New York's narrow legal definition, which the judge REQUIRED the jury to use.
The judge later made a point of saying...the jury's finding amounts to RAPE as the word is commonly understood.
So...it's not that the system valued the assault at pennies on the dollar; it's that the huge number...was a punishment for him REFUSING...for years...to shut the f*ck up.
-Jack
I think, could be wrong, but i think it's for continued defamation after the initial trial result.
Good morning, Jack! Thank you so much for making the effort to answer this question. While both of these are serious crimes, I am now pondering what the experience of defamation may have been like for E. Jean Carroll. In a way, it prolongs the duration of the original wound. I have heard trauma survivors say that they re-experience the attack every time it is spoken of. Pair that with the muscle memory of trauma and she really must have suffered. I’m glad she got some justice. Thanks again!
Note: The assault actually occurred in late ‘95 or early ‘96. At that time New York defined rape as penile penetration, i.e., fingers were not sufficient for a rape charge. I think it was in 2019, that she went public and, of course all his lies resulted in the first defamation case, then followed by the second bigger case (88.3 million?) and apparently that’s still not enough for him to shut his lying lips. I dearly hope she & her lawyer go for a third defamation case. It would completely serve him right as he keeps asking for it!!!
I sure hope she wins the next one. How I would love to witness that one. Come on Karma!!!! 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦♥️
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏💪💪💪💪💪💪💪