US writer alleges Trump raped her in mid-1990s
WASHINGTON: An advice columnist for Elle fashion magazine said in an account published Friday that Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of a New York department store more than two decades ago.
Trump reacted with a statement saying he'd never met his accuser, E. Jean Carroll, and that the incident "never happened."
According to Carroll, the rape occurred in either 1995 or 1996, when Trump was a prominent real estate developer and she was a well-known magazine writer and host of a television show.
The account, revealed in an excerpt of Carroll's latest book and published Friday by New York magazine, makes her at least the 16th woman to have accused Trump of sexual misconduct before he became president.
Carroll, 75, says she ran into Trump at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan while they were both shopping.
She says that in an initially friendly encounter, Trump asked her for advice on buying a piece of lingerie for an unnamed woman. Then jokingly, they each suggested that the other should try it on.
"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," Carroll wrote.
Pinning her against the wall, Carroll says, Trump proceeded to pull down her tights, unzip his pants and penetrate her -- all while himself fully dressed -- until she finally managed to push him out and run from the dressing room.
Carroll never went to the police because, she said, she was afraid of repercussions.
Carroll wrote that she did not come forward sooner because she was afraid of "receiving death threats, being driven from my home, being dismissed, being dragged through the mud."
"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," she wrote.
Trump shot back that Carroll was an attention seeker.
"I've never met this person in my life. She is trying to sell a new book --that should indicate her motivation," he said in a statement. "It should be sold in the fiction section."
He also said that New York magazine is a "dying publication" and had tried to "prop itself up by peddling fake news."
The magazine quoted a senior White House official saying that the accusation "was created simply to make the president look bad," while Trump asked if Carroll had links to his opponents in the Democratic party.
courtesy: Agence France-Presse
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Kolkata, May 18: In a veiled reference to West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said he cannot speak in favour of someone who wants to finish him politically and his party in the state.
His comment comes hours after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge asserted that Chowdhury is no one to take a decision on whether Banerjee would be part of the INDIA bloc in the event of the anti-BJP alliance coming to power after the Lok Sabha polls.
Asked about Kharge’s statement, Chowdhury, who is seeking re-election from Baharampur on a Congress ticket, said, “I cannot speak in favour of someone who wants to finish me politically and our party in Bengal. This is a battle for every Congress worker. I have spoken on their behalf.”
Stating that his opposition to Banerjee stemmed from his principled stance, not from his interest, Chowdhury said “There is no personal grudge but I question her political ethics."
Asked about Mamata Banerjee's comment that she will support the INDIA bloc government from the outside and Chowdhury's remark that the Bengal CM cannot be trusted and she might go with the BJP, Kharge told reporters, "Mamata Banerjee is with the alliance. She has recently said that she will join the government. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary will not take the decision. The decision will be taken by me and the high command those who don't agree will go out."
Chowdhury also alleged that Banerjee had "taken Maoists' help to discredit the Left in Purulia, Bankura and Jhargram and then abandoned them.
“I don’t want the state Congress to be used for her personal agenda and then finish the organisation. If Kharge ji speaks against my views, I will continue to speak for Congressmen at the grassroots in the state.”
The TMC is contesting the Lok Sabha elections alone in the state, while the Congress and the Left are jointly fighting.
