The columnist’s defamation case defies the history of a legal system being used to silence women‘Carroll’s lawsuit proceeds from the assumption that women, including women who accuse powerful men of sexual violence, are entitled to all the same legal protections men are.’ Photograph: Craig Ruttle/APE Jean Carroll, the Elle advice columnist who in June accused Donald Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room in the mid-90s, filed a lawsuit on Monday in a New York court. She is suing the US president for defamation.After Carroll detailed the rape in an excerpt from her memoir, What Do We Need Men For?, that was published in New York Magazine, Trump did what he usually does: he went after her character. He denied the rape and also made assertions that were easily disproven, including that he had never met Carroll. In fact they had met: her memoir, as well as the magazine excerpt, included a photograph of them together at a party in the 80s. He said she was “totally lying” an...