Writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room 23 years ago, is suing the US President for defamation, claiming he damaged her reputation and career when he denied the allegations.
In a tweet confirming the legal action, Carroll wrote that she filed it on behalf of “every woman who has ever been harassed, assaulted, silenced, or spoken up only to be shamed, fired, ridiculed and belittled.”
She finished with, “No person in this country should be above the law – including the president.”
According to the lawsuit, Trump’s response to the allegations – which was to deny he’d ever met Carroll despite a photo of them together from the ’80s – was “fully consistent with his tried-and-true playbook for responding to credible public reports that he sexually assaulted women.”
In Carroll’s book, What Do We Need Men For?, which was released in July, she alleges she bumped into Trump in the upmarket department store in New York 23 years ago.
Trump allegedly asked for her advice on buying a present for a woman, before suggesting lingerie and joked that Carroll should try on the set he had picked out. She says she retorted that he should try it, before Trump pulls her towards the dressing room. “This is gonna be hilarious, I’m saying to myself — and as I write this, I am staggered by my stupidity,” she writes.
Carroll alleges that the moment the dressing-room door is closed, Trump “lunges at me, pushes me against the wall, hitting my head quite badly, and puts his mouth against my lips.”
“I am so shocked I shove him back and start laughing again. He seizes both my arms and pushes me up against the wall a second time, and, as I become aware of how large he is, he holds me against the wall with his shoulder and jams his hand under my coat dress and pulls down my tights.”
She continues, “The next moment, still wearing correct business attire, shirt, tie, suit jacket, overcoat, he opens the overcoat, unzips his pants, and, forcing his fingers around my private area, thrusts his penis halfway — or completely, I’m not certain — inside me.”
At the time, Trump denied meeting Carroll and denied the allegations, saying, “I’ll say it with great respect: Number one, she’s not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, okay?” Of the lawsuit, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham told The Washington Post is is “frivolous” and reportedly called Carroll “a fraud.”
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