A new New York State law entered into force in the last 24 hours and which gives one year to victims of rape to file a complaint even years later was used by a journalist from a women’s magazine to denounce her alleged rapist: Donald Trump.
Jean Carroll, writer and commentator for Elle magazine, has sued the tycoon for assault and defamation, regarding an alleged violence that took place in the mid-1990s, in the dressing room of a New York department store. The woman had already talked about this episode in the pages of her book published in 2019. Trump had denied the allegations, only saying that it could never have happened because “he wasn’t my type”. The comment had prompted Carroll to sue him for libel but there had been no consequences because as US president Trump enjoyed immunity.
In the new complaint, the woman confirmed the version of events. The entry into force of the New York State law, called the Adult Survivors Act, allows anyone to seek justice even for an episode that occurred many years ago.
The Carroll case can motivate many women to report their abuserseven after some time. Last year alone, when retroactive complaints concerned child abuse cases, 11,000 complaints were filed.
