New lows are getting old in Donald Trump’s second term. The latest frontier of cruelty is Trump’s Justice Department reportedly opening a perjury investigation into the 82-year-old E. Jean Carroll, the woman he sexually abused.
Note that I don’t have to say “allegedly” sexually abused, because a jury has already found Trump liable for the sexual abuse, which involved forced vaginal penetration with his fingers. The presiding judge decreed that while the abuse did not meet the technical definition of rape under New York State’s legal definition, “Mr. Trump in fact did ‘rape’ Ms. Carroll as that term commonly is used and understood in contexts outside of New York Penal Law.”
The abuse finding is not a lone verdict that can be waved away. There are two cases. The 2023 jury that found Trump liable for sexual abuse also found him liable for defamation and awarded Carroll $5 million. A second jury, in January 2024, awarded her an additional $83.3 million for Trump’s continued defamation—$18.3 million in compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive damages. In September 2025, a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit upheld that judgment, describing the “degree of reprehensibility of Trump’s conduct as remarkably high and perhaps unprecedented,” and noting that he kept attacking Carroll throughout the trial itself. Two juries and a federal appeals court have all reached the same conclusion. Siccing the Justice Department on Carroll is a continuation of Trump’s attacks in defiance of multiple judicial admonitions and punishments.
Trump is unfit for office, and deserves impeachment and conviction, on the basis of these facts alone.
We know that many members of the House of Representatives believe that not only proven sexual misconduct by a fellow member should be grounds for expulsion, but also credible allegations. Republicans Lauren Boebert, Anna Paulina Luna, and Nancy Mace have promoted themselves as determined fighters against sexual misconduct who played a leading role, by threatening expulsion, in pressuring the twin resignations of Democrat Eric Swalwell and Republican Tony Gonzales. Luna told Newsweek, “No one is above the law, and I will be voting to expel them.” Boebert, blasting colleagues who voted to keep misconduct records sealed, called it “absolutely disgusting for anyone to vote against this.” This month, the head of the Republican Women’s Caucus, Kat Cammack, joined her Democratic counterpart on a bipartisan effort to improve Congress’s workplace culture and reporting mechanisms; she said on CNN their aim is to “make sure the accountability doesn’t begin and end with expulsion.”
“This is not a party issue. It never was,” Mace said in April. “Republican or Democrat, if you are abusing the public trust or covering up your misconduct on the taxpayer’s dime, you should be brought into the light and held accountable. No exceptions.”
Yet these House Republicans have not applied the zero-tolerance standard to Trump. A New York Times profile of Boebert, Luna, and Mace reported: “they said that they saw nothing wrong with the behavior of the president—who was found liable of sexual abuse in 2023 and was caught on tape boasting about pushing himself on women—and dismissed the accusations of sexual misconduct against him. ‘I’ve only ever gotten grandfather vibes,’ Ms. Boebert said of Mr. Trump.”
“Vibes” is not a satisfactory reason to ignore Trump’s proven—not just alleged—transgression. The only plausible excuse is political; Republicans are afraid they would never hold elective office again if they hold Trump to a zero-tolerance standard. And they’re probably right. Trump has shown he retains the ability to exhort primary voters and punish wayward Republicans. But to look away from Trump’s sexual misconduct is to make a mockery of any claim to putting the protection of women ahead of political concerns.
Looking away was easier when the E. Jean Carroll verdict from 2023 could be shrugged off as old news. If voters in 2024 didn’t care, why should we care now?
Because now we see the ramifications of letting Trump skate. Unafraid of political or legal repercussions, according to multiple media outlets, Trump is brazenly using Justice Department investigators in Chicago to harass the person he victimized. (The top prosecutor in the Chicago office, Andrew Boutros, released a statement denying that a criminal investigation into Carroll has been opened, but CNN, the outlet which originally broke the story, reported “After Boutros’ statement was issued, sources reaffirmed the investigation to CNN.”) That not only re-victimizes Carroll, it also sends a message to all rape survivors—past, present, and future—that if you press charges against someone with political power, you risk retaliation.
As CNN notes, the perjury accusation stems not from Carroll’s (proven) claims of abuse, but her statement in a deposition that she wasn’t getting outside financial help to cover legal fees. Before the trial began, her lawyers later told the judge that they did get outside financial help, and then Trump’s lawyers got to question Carroll again in another deposition. “When the trial began two weeks later Judge Lewis Kaplan said he saw no issue with Carroll’s credibility,” reported CNN. In other words, this was a matter resolved ahead of the trial. No perjury investigation is justified.
Trump’s decision to shine the spotlight back on Carroll is reason for the rest of us to remind ourselves that Trump is a proven sex abuser. And if sex abusers should not sit in Congress, then neither should they sit in the Oval Office. If we don’t apply that rule consistently, Washington’s work environment will not sufficiently change. Instead, it is Trump’s hot mic rule that will continue to carry the day: “When you’re a star, they let you do it.”
