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One of America’s best known advice columnists claims she was raped by Donald Trump inside a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-90s.
E Jean Carroll, now 75, whose advice column has appeared in Elle for the past 26 years, alleges she was sexually assaulted by Trump in her new book What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal.
She has shared the story and five others with New York in a piece that also details how Les Moonves allegedly fondled her in an elevator and hints at an incident of sexual misconduct involving her former boss Roger Ailes.
She appears on the magazine’s cover in the very same coat dress that she claims she was wearing on that day in the Fall of 1995 or Spring of 1996 when a chance encounter with Trump allegedly turned into a sexual assault.
In an interview with MSNBC Friday evening Carroll, who said she would not be looking to press charges against Trump, described the alleged incident as a ‘fight’.
She said: ‘It became a fight. And it hurt. And it was against my will.’
Trump allegedly shoved Carroll against a wall, unzipped his pants and forcibly penetrated her in an attack she claims lasted three minutes.
The White House responded to Carroll’s allegations by stating: ‘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.’
A heated Trump later expounded on this statement with his own remarks on Friday afternoon.
‘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,’ said Trump.
‘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 went on to note the lack of evidence, specifically that there were no eyewitnesses or video footage of the alleged assault.
He added: ‘Ms. Carroll & New York Magazine: No pictures? No surveillance? No video? No reports? No sales attendants around?? I would like to thank Bergdorf Goodman for confirming they have no video footage of any such incident, because it never happened.’
Trump closed out with a request.
‘If anyone has information that the Democratic Party is working with Ms. Carroll or New York Magazine, please notify us as soon as possible,’ he said.
‘The world should know what’s really going on. It is a disgrace and people should pay dearly for such false accusations.’
The New York Magazine excerpt included a photo showing Trump and Carroll together.
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Denial: The White House called Carroll’s allegations ‘a completely false and unrealistic story’ meant to make Trump look bad
In the MSNBC interview Friday evening Carroll said she would ‘find it disrespectful’ to women on the border to press charges against Trump.
She said: ‘I would find it disrespectful to the women down on the border who are being raped around the clock down there without any protection. They’re young women.
‘The women have very little protection there and it would just be disrespectful.
‘Mine was three minutes, I am a mature woman, I can handle it, I can keep going. My life has gone on, I am a happy woman.
‘But for the women down there, and for the women actually around the world, in every culture this is going on, no matter high in society or low in society it just seems disrespectful, it just doesn’t make sense to me.’
Trump would have been married to Marla Maples at this time, and Carroll is now the 16th woman to accuse the president of sexual misconduct.
He had also recently welcomed a fourth child in 1993, daughter Tiffany.
Carroll claims she was on her way out of the store when Trump asked her for help with a gift and guided her towards the lingerie department.
She also notes that he looked handsome on the day in question, writing: ‘I am surprised at how good-looking he is. We’ve met once before, and perhaps it is the dusky light but he looks prettier than ever.’
Carroll was doing a daily talk show called Ask E Jean at the time for Ailes’ America’s Talking cable network, which is how she drew Trump’s attention.
‘Hey, you’re that advice lady!’ said Trump according to Carroll.
That was allegedly followed by a request from the real estate developer, whose Trump Tower is located just one block south of Bergdorf Goodman.
‘Come advise me. I gotta buy a present,’ said Trump according to Carroll, who tried to point out a few ideas in the store’s main foyer.
When they were all dismissed by Trump, she asked the age of the woman he was shopping for, prompting him to ask her the same question.
She was 52 at the time, two years older than Trump, and when she told him he allegedly started laughing and said: ‘You’re so old.’
He then said ‘lingerie’, according to Carroll, and the pair headed upstairs to that department.
Once there, Carroll claims she tried to diffuse repeated attempts to get her to model one of the wears by suggesting Trump try them on in a nearby dressing room.
It was when they went to one of those rooms that the alleged assault took place.
‘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. I am so shocked I shove him back and start laughing again,’ writes Carroll.
‘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.’
She continues: ‘I am astonished by what I’m about to write: I keep laughing. 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.’
Family: Trump would have been married to Marla Maples at this time, who had given birth to daughter Tiffany in 1993 (above)
Walk and talk: Carroll has been leading Hideous Men tours around the city, where she stops at Trump Tower (above outside the building with one group)
Carroll claims that she fought off Trump before she was able to flee from the dressing room and out of the store.
She did not report the alleged assault to police, but did tell two friends she said, and has kept the dress ever since.
The first, who is not named but is described as a ‘a journalist, magazine writer, correspondent on the TV morning shows, author of many books,’ said: ‘He raped you. He raped you. Go to the police! I’ll go with you. We’ll go together.’
The second, a New York anchor woman, responded: ‘Tell no one. Forget it! He has 200 lawyers. He’ll bury you.’
New York spoke with those friends, and noted that ‘both still remember the incident clearly and confirmed their accounts.’
Carroll also acknowledged the fact that it took her 25 years to share her story, listing some of the reasons she was hesitant to come forward.
‘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,’ explained Caroll.
‘Also, I am a coward.’
She now joins a list of accusers that includes: Jessica Leeds, Kristin Anderson, Jill Harth, Cathy Heller, Temple Taggart McDowell, Karena Virginia, Melinda McGillivray, Rachel Crooks, Natasha Stoynoff, Jessica Drake, Ninni Laaksonen, Summer Zervos, Juliet Huddy, Alva Johnson, and Cassandra Searles.
Her decision to keep quiet is a bit of a surprise given that she has been leading Hideous Men tours around New York, where she stops at Trump Tower.
Other stops include the Fox News studios and Rockefeller Center.
It is Trump though who appears to loom largest for Carroll, as he was her ‘last hideous man.’
‘The Donna Karan coat dress still hangs on the back of my closet door, unworn and unlaundered since that evening,’ reveals Carroll.
‘And whether it’s my age, the fact that I haven’t met anyone fascinating enough over the past couple of decades to feel ‘the sap rising,’ as Tom Wolfe put it, or if it’s the blot of the real-estate tycoon, I can’t say. But I have never had sex with anybody ever again.’
LES MOONVES
Allegedly hideous: Soon after her alleged assault, Carroll claims she was molested by Moonves
Soon after her alleged assault by Trump, Carroll claims she was molested by Moonves.
It happened while interviewing him for a story claims Carroll, who recalls the moment he allegedly came at her in an elevator with ‘his pants bursting with demands, goes at me like an octopus.’
Carroll, who towers over Moonves, says she was able to escape that encounter without being sexually assaulted by the pint-sized but persistent TV titan.
‘I don’t know how many apertures and openings you possess, Reader, but Moonves, with his arms squirming and poking and goosing and scooping and pricking and prodding and jabbing, is looking for fissures I don’t even know I own, and — by God! — I am not certain that even if I pull off one of his arms it won’t crawl after me and attack me in my hotel bed,’ writes Carroll.
‘Hell, I am thrilled I escape before he expels his ink.’
Moonves, who has also been accused of sexual misconduct by 13 other women, ’emphatically denies’ the allegation made by Carroll.
It was around this same time that he was also accused of sexual misconduct by Illeana Douglas.
He was married at the time to his first wife Nancy, and had three young children.
She made no mention of the encounter with Moonves in the article, and as before with Trump, did not report his alleged conduct to police.
‘I am a member of the Silent Generation,’ explains Carroll. ‘We do not flap our gums. We laugh it off and get on with life.’
CAM PARKS
At 12, Carroll was allegedly assaulted by her waterfront director at Girl Scout Camp, Cam Parks, after winning the beauty pageant.
‘[Cam] takes me out in a boat and runs his hands under my shirt and up my shorts. He is breathing and moving his hand slowly and hotly, and I fight no battles in my head. My mind goes white. This is Cam,’ writes Carroll.
‘This is Cam, who continues to run his hand inside my shorts and under my blouse – even in the dining room during dinner, under the table, squeezing my thighs, shoving his fingers – saying, ‘You’re my girl. You’re my girl. You’re my girl,’ and making me Girl Scout–promise ‘not to tell anyone.”
He would later author a book called The Girl Scout Man.
Carroll writes that she regrets not speaking up in this case as she was likely just one of his alleged victims.
At the time of his death, Cam had been ‘suddenly dismissed’ from his post, according to Carroll.
‘I could have spoken up! Maybe not when I was 12. But when I was 25. He died when I was 34. I might have stopped him,’ she writes.
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