Trump’s alleged rape victim gets win before defamation trial

Very few aspects of the Trump administration and the ex-president’s ongoing efforts to maintain relevancy have been what you might call empowering to women — with one exception:  columnist E. Jean Carrolll’s awesomely badass refusal to let Trump control her narrative despite his most over-the-top efforts. 

As a recap, E. Jean Carroll accused the former president of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s, an accusation Trump denied with the wildly compelling evidence that she wasn’t his type, because that’s how sexual assault works. (It’s not.) Trump said Carroll was lying about the incident and she said nope, and she sued him for defamation, recently enjoying a major win in the case. 

See, Carroll’s team wanted to submit as evidence the testimonies of two women Natasha Stoynoff and Jessica Leeds who separately accused the former president of sexual assault. Carroll’s lawyers also wanted to include the infamous Access Hollywood tape in which Trump declares that he likes to quote, grab them by the pussy. Remember that tape? We elected him president, that guy! Trump’s team wasn’t too psyched about this for obvious reasons, and they submitted a request to disallow both the tape and the other women’s testimonies. Last week, District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected this request stating that in a civil case based on sexual assault, evidence that the defendant committed other sexual assaults may be admitted in trial. 

Trump’s team argued that the other allegations of assault were very different from Carroll’s to which the judge said, “really?” noting that, quote, “the alleged acts are far more similar than different in the important aspects.” Kaplan went on to say that again, quote, “a jury reasonably could find even from the Access Hollywood tape alone, that Mr. Trump admitted that he, in fact, has had contact with women’s genitalia in the past without their consent, or that he has attempted to do so.” 

Trump’s tremendous, very big, very impressive history of sexually assaulting women is no secret. I probably have to say alleged assault because I don’t feel like getting sued either. But it’s also my opinion that the guy is a sociopathic serial predator. So there you go. And as someone who, like most women I know, has experienced various incidents of assault over the course of her life, virtually all of which have been brushed aside as “you know, it’s just the way it goes,” I have to say, watching someone stand up to one of the most powerful men on the planet over and over and over, just refusing to be silenced in the face of what I have to assume are overwhelming personal and professional costs, it’s badass. She shouldn’t have to do this. She certainly shouldn’t have to do this under these conditions. But I am so so grateful that she is.