Elle magazine advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who accused President Trump of sexually assaulting her in the mid-1990s, told the New York Times Wednesday that Trump’s onslaught of insults led to the publication’s decision to fire her.
The “Ask E. Jean” columnist announced that she was fired from the magazine in a Tuesday tweet, blaming Trump for ridiculing her after she accused him last year of sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room prior to his presidency. Carroll made the accusation in a book excerpt published in New York magazine in June.
Because Trump ridiculed my reputation, laughed at my looks, & dragged me through the mud, after 26 years, ELLE fired me. I don't blame Elle. It was the great honor of my life writing "Ask E. Jean." I blame @realdonaldtrump.https://t.co/vYIVL6yDIp
— E. Jean Carroll (@ejeancarroll) February 18, 2020
Trump has denied Carroll’s accusation several times, which included saying in June that Carroll is “not my type.”
Last November, Carroll sued Trump for defamation in New York State Court after he repeatedly attacked her on Twitter, most notably insulting Carroll’s physical appearance and suggesting she made up the allegations to increase book sales. Carroll argued in the lawsuit that Trump’s attacks hurt her reputation and prompted the loss of readers of her advice column.
In a court filing obtained by the Times Tuesday, Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan included an email dated Dec. 11 between Carroll and Elle executive managing editor Erin Hobday that confirmed Carroll’s termination. The email also confirmed that Elle Magazine would pay Carroll for the remaining five columns in her contract.
“We and your readers so appreciate your many years of work for the magazine, and the wonderful columns you contributed to our publication,” Hobday wrote in the court filing, according to the Times. “We will miss you tremendously.”
Kaplan told TPM in a statement Wednesday that Carroll filed the defamation lawsuit to “prove that Donald Trump lied about sexually assaulting her and to restore her credibility and reputation.”
“From the very beginning, Trump has tried every tactic lawyers can think of to halt this case in its tracks and keep the truth from coming out,” Kaplan said in the statement. “His latest effort — a motion to stay our client’s case until the New York Court of Appeals decides the Summer Zervos case likely after November 2020 — is yet another obvious delay tactic that is not grounded in the law and, like his previous attempts to stall this case, will be rejected by the court.”
Read the Times’ report here.
