Famed magazine columnist: 'Donald Trump assaulted me'

Magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll alleges she was sexually assaulted by President Trump during the 1990s, in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman. However, Trump tweeted in response: “I’ve never met this person in my life.”

Carroll makes the allegations in her upcoming book What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal (published July 16), and excerpted in the latest issue of New York magazine’s The Cut. The article is titled, “Hideous Men. Donald Trump assaulted me in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room 23 years ago. But he’s not alone on the list of awful men in my life.”

The 75-year-old advice columnist, who then worked as a cable television host, says she was shopping at the luxury department store one evening in either 1995 or 1996 when “One of New York’s most famous men” walked in and said, “Hey, you’re that advice lady!”

“Hey, you’re that real-estate tycoon!” Carroll, then 52, responded.

According to Carroll, Trump was at the store to buy a present for “a girl” whom he didn’t name. However, the now-president was married to Marla Maples (the mother of Tiffany Trump) from 1993 to 1999. Noting that Trump “yammers about himself like he’s Alexander the Great ready to loot Babylon,” the pair walked around the store, debating handbags and hats, making their way up to the lingerie floor where Trump allegedly demanded that Carroll try on a lacy, sheer bodysuit.

Carroll demurred but says Trump grabbed her arm and guided her to a dressing room.

“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,” wrote Carroll. “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.”

Carroll wrote that the now-president unzipped his pants, “forcing his fingers around my private area” and thrusted himself “halfway — or completely, I’m not certain — inside me.” Calling the encounter a “colossal struggle,” she tried pushing him off, eventually separating with the force of her knee.

The writer ran from the dressing room and out of Bergdorf Goodman, later confiding to two friends, one of whom she says tells her, “He raped you. He raped you. Go to the police! I’ll go with you. We’ll go together.” Carroll’s other friend allegedly warned, “Tell no one. Forget it! He has 200 lawyers. He’ll bury you.” Both women confirmed Carroll’s story to New York magazine.

Carroll preemptively addresses potential reader concerns: She did not file a police report and has no tangible evidence. Security cameras may have captured a vague snapshot of what occurred, she wrote, but Bergdorf Goodman does not possess such dated footage. There were no salespeople in view to corroborate her account. And Carroll says fear of death threats and the dissolution of her reputation has kept her silent. “Also, I am a coward,” she wrote.

Among Carroll’s list of 21 “Hideous Men”— the most “revolting scoundrels I have ever met — she names Les Moonves, the former CEO of CBS, who was fired in 2018 after allegations of sexual misconduct from many women.

The president has denied every sexual assault allegation that has come to light. A representative of the White House did not return Yahoo Lifestyle’s request for comment. According to The Cut, the White House responded to Carroll’s story by saying, “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.”

On Friday, Trump released a statement that read. “...I’ve never met this person in my life. She is trying to sell a new book — that should indicate her motivation. It should be sold in the fiction section.”

“Shame on those who make up false stories of assault to try to get publicity for themselves, or sell a book, or carry out a political agenda,” he said, comparing Carroll to Julie Swetnick, one of a few women to accuse Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault in 2018.

The president pointed out Carroll’s absence of evidence and accused her of “working with” the Democratic party. “The world should know what’s really going on,” read the statement. “It is a disgrace and people should pay dearly for such false allegations.”

Yahoo Lifestyle was not immediately able to reach Carroll for comment.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

• President Trump says America has 'a new Jackie O': 'It's called Melania T'

• CNN under fire for Melania Trump 'Woman of Mystery' show: 'Please tell me you asked her about being a birther'

• Ivanka Trump Collected $4 Million Last Year From Dad's Controversial Washington Hotel

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.