US President Donald Trump has dismissed allegations that he raped a woman in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s as “fiction”.
The US president says he never met E. Jean Carroll and accuses her of making up the allegation to sell a new book.
Ms Carroll says she did not report the alleged attack at the time after being advised by a friend she had no chance of winning in court.
Her story was published in New York magazine on Friday.
More than a dozen women have previously made sexual misconduct allegations against Mr Trump, which he has denied.
What does E. Jean Carroll allege?
In the article, she describes meeting Mr Trump in late 1995 or early 1996, in Bergdorf Goodman. She says she recognised him as the “real estate tycoon” and that he told her he was buying a present for “a girl”.
She says Mr Trump knew she was a TV agony aunt and the two joked around, encouraging each other to try on some lingerie.
She alleges that they then went to a dressing room, where she accuses him of raping her.
Both Mr Trump and Ms Carroll were aged around 50 at the time, and he was married to Marla Maples.
Ms Carroll says she told two friends about the alleged incident, one of whom advised her to go to the police.
But she says the other advised her against telling anyone saying: “Forget it! He has 200 lawyers. He’ll bury you.”
The accusation is one of six alleged attacks by “awful men” that Ms Carroll details in her article.
Another alleged incident involves Les Moonves, the former CEO of CBS. He resigned in 2018 after allegations of sexual misconduct.
Mr Moonves’ representative told New York magazine he “emphatically denies” the incident.
Ms Carroll ends the article by saying Mr Trump was her “last hideous man” and she has not had sex since then.
How did Trump respond?
“I’ve never met this person in my life,” the US president said in a statement. “She is trying to sell a new book – that should indicate her motivation. It should be sold in the fiction section.”
Mr Trump encouraged anyone with information that the Democratic Party is working with Ms Carroll or New York Magazine to notify the White House.
He accused the publication of “peddling fake news”.
“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.
“It’s just as bad for people to believe it, particularly when there is zero evidence,” he added.
In his statement, Mr Trump thanked Bergdorf Goodman, the upmarket New York department store where the incident allegedly took place, for “confirming they have no video footage of any such incident”.
Source: BBC
