Columnist E. Jean Carroll wrote a vivid account accusing Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-90s
- Columnist E. Jean Carroll accused President Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.
- The accusation was published in New York magazine on Friday as an excerpt from her new book ,"What Do We Need Men For?"
- Carroll says she met Trump inside Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury Manhattan department store, and agreed to help him select a present for a girl after he asked her for advice.
- She wrote that Trump violently assaulted her after she entered a dressing room with him inside the store.
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Columnist E. Jean Carroll accused President Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her in a department store dressing room the mid-1990s.
The accusation was published in New York magazine on Friday as an excerpt from her new book ,"What Do We Need Men For?"
Carroll says she met Trump inside Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury Manhattan department store, and agreed to help him select a present for a girl after he asked her for advice. She wrote that Trump assaulted her after she entered a dressing room with him inside the store.
"The moment the dressing-room door is closed, he lunges at me, pushes me against the wall, hitting my head quite badly, and puts his mouth against my lips," she wrote. "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. It turns into a colossal struggle."
Carroll wrote that she physically fought Trump off of her and fled the scene of the encounter, which took "no more than three minutes."
"I try to stomp his foot. I try to push him off with my one free hand - for some reason, I keep holding my purse with the other - and I finally get a knee up high enough to push him out and off and I turn, open the door, and run out of the dressing room," she wrote.
The White House denied Carroll's allegations in a statement to New York magazine.
"This is a completely false and unrealistic story surfacing 25 years after allegedly taking place and was created simply to make the President look bad," the statement read.
Carroll wrote that she hasn't come forward with her allegations until now because she feared Trump's wrath and the pain of being called a liar.
"Receiving death threats, being driven from my home, being dismissed, being dragged through the mud, and joining the 15 women who've come forward with credible stories about how the man grabbed, badgered, belittled, mauled, molested, and assaulted them, only to see the man turn it around, deny, threaten, and attack them, never sounded like much fun," she wrote. "Also, I am a coward."
Carroll's allegation is the most serious public sexual misconduct allegation that has so far been made against the president.
At least 23 other women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct, including assault, since the 1970s.
Trump has denied all of the allegations, calling the women "liars."