**TRENDING: "E. Jean Carroll's Legal Team Files Motion for Gag Order Against ALL Civilians – Real or Fake?"**
**The Claim:** A viral post on X (formerly Twitter) is claiming that E. Jean Carroll’s legal team has filed a motion for a “nationwide gag order” preventing any U.S. citizen from speaking publicly about the writer, her sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump, or the defamation verdicts. The post includes a doctored image of a court filing with the caption: *“They want to make it illegal to even say her name in public. This is the end of free speech.”*
**The Verdict: FAKE.** This claim is completely fabricated. No such motion exists. E. Jean Carroll’s attorneys—Roberta Kaplan and Shawn Crowley—have not filed any request to gag the general public. In reality, the only active gag orders in the case are standard, narrow restrictions on the parties (Carroll and Trump) and their lawyers, preventing them from making extrajudicial statements that could inflame the jury pool or disparage witnesses.
The viral image is a clear hoax: the court document shown is a generic template from a different state, the file number doesn't match any case on the Southern District of New York docket, and the language cited (“all persons residing in the United States”) would be an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech that no federal judge would ever sign.
**Why it’s spreading:** The fake claim taps into ongoing tensions surrounding Trump’s legal battles and fears over “weaponized” courts. It also plays into a broader right-wing narrative that Carroll (who is a journalist and former *Elle* magazine columnist) is part of a coordinated effort to silence Trump supporters.
**Key Facts You Need:**
- E. Jean Carroll won two civil defamation trials against Donald Trump in 2023 and 2024 (a combined $88.3 million in damages).