E. Jean Carroll Sues Trump For Defamation After He Denied Her Rape Allegation

E. Jean Carroll, who claimed that President Donald Trump raped her two decades ago in Manhattan, filed suit against the president today for defamation.

Carroll went public with her allegations in June in an article she wrote for New York magazine while working on a book detailing the event. Today, she filed a lawsuit in New York state court in Manhattan.

Carroll’s allegations state that she ran into Trump in either 1996 or 1997 at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan. In her account, she describes bumping into Trump inside the store. She mentioned that he grabbed a bodysuit for her to try on after they walked around in the lingerie section. They then proceeded to go into the dressing room together, which is when the assault occurred.

“He lunges at me, pushes me against the wall, hitting my head quite badly, and puts his mouth against my lips,” Carroll wrote. “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.”

After her article was released, Trump repeatedly denied the claims. In June, Trump told reporters outside the White House that Carroll’s claim was “a totally false accusation” and claimed he didn’t know who she was. He also told reporters that he believed her book “should be sold in the fiction section.”

“I am filing this lawsuit for every woman who’s been pinched, prodded, cornered, felt-up, pushed against a wall, grabbed, groped, assaulted, and has spoken up only to be shamed, demeaned, disgraced, passed over for promotion, fired, and forgotten,” Carroll said in a statement. “No person in this country should be above the law — including the President.”

The lawsuit seeks a court order forcing Trump to retract the statements.