New York - A woman who accuses Donald Trump
of raping her more than 23 years ago in a New York department
store sued the U.S. president on Monday over statements he made
in June denying that the attack occurred and criticizing her for
coming forward.
E. Jean Carroll, a longtime Elle magazine advice columnist,
said in a complaint filed in a New York state court in Manhattan
that Trump lied about attacking her, and "smeared her integrity,
honesty, and dignity" by concocting a "swarm of related lies" to
explain why she would make the incident up.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for
comment. White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham told the
Washington Post that "the lawsuit is frivolous and the story is
a fraud - just like the author."
Carroll's account of the alleged rape at Bergdorf Goodman on
Fifth Avenue, which she said occurred between the autumn of 1995
and spring of 1996, had been published in New York magazine in
June, excerpted from her memoir released the next month.
After the account was published, Trump made statements that
he did not rape Carroll and had never met her. He said she was
"totally lying" as part of an effort to boost book sales.
"I'll say it with great respect: Number one, she's not my
type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?" he
told The Hill newspaper in Washington.
In her complaint, Carroll said the attack lasted two to
three minutes, before she ran out of the dressing room and onto
Fifth Avenue.
Carroll said in the lawsuit she soon confided in two
friends, author Lisa Birnbach and former WCBS news anchor Carol
Martin, about the alleged attack, but did not report Trump to
authorities because she feared retribution.
She said she went public after accounts in 2017 of alleged
sexual misconduct by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, which
he has denied, spawned the #MeToo movement.
"No person in this country should be above the law
-including the President," Carroll said in a statement provided
by her lawyers.
Trump has denied accusations by more than one dozen women
who said he made unwanted sexual advances against them years
before he entered politics.
He also faces a defamation lawsuit by Summer Zervos, a
former contestant on his television show "The Apprentice," who
claimed he kissed her against her will in 2007 in New York and
later groped her at a Beverly Hills hotel.
Zervos sued after Trump republished on Twitter a post
calling her accusations a "hoax."