Advice Columnist E. Jean Carroll Accuses Donald Trump Of Rape

E. Jean Carroll, the advice column journalist and author, has accused Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her in the dressing room of a department store in 1995 or 1996. In a scathing essay released today, she describes graphically, but eloquently, how the two encountered in Bergdorf Goodman in Midtown Manhattan.

According to Carroll, Trump recognized her as “that advice lady” and asked for her help finding a gift for a female friend. The two made their way to the lingerie department where they joked about who would try on a lace bodysuit. Once they were in the dressing room, Carroll thought she would be able to cajole Trump into trying on the bodysuit.

With the door closed, Trump pinned Carroll to the wall and began kissing her and pulling off her tights. Carroll fought back, trying to push him off, but laughed nervously as the assault continued. “I am astonished by what I’m about to write: I keep laughing,” Carroll wrote in her essay, Hideous Men. Trump doubled down, forcing her hands back and leaning against her, while he thrust himself inside of her. “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.”

Bergdorf Goodman has not kept security footage from that time, and no one was around to witness the incident. Carroll claims she told no one but two friends, both journalists. One of them emphatically demanded that they go to the police; “He raped you. Go to the police! I’ll go with you. We’ll go together.” The other told her to “tell no one,” reminding her that Trump, as with many wealthy powerful men of that time, had enough lawyers to “bury her.” Both friends have corroborated the story.

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The White House has denied the allegations, claiming “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.” By coming forward with her story, Carroll has become the 24th woman to accuse Trump of sexual assault, with Trump denying every allegation.

Carroll has stated that in the 23 years since her rape, she has not had sex.