New York journalist E Jean Caroll who accused US President Donald Trump of raping her has sued him for defamation after he ridiculed her claim on the grounds that she was “not my type.”
75-year-old women’s advice columnist, Caroll filed her lawsuit in the supreme court of New York state on Monday in which she argues that Trump’s denials and characterisation of her as a money-grabbing liar have damaged her reputation and career.
In her statement to, Caroll said, “I am filing this on behalf of every woman who has ever been harassed, assaulted, silenced, or spoken up only to be shamed, fired, ridiculed and belittled. No person in this country should be above the law – including the president.”
“I am filing this on behalf of every woman who has ever been harassed, assaulted, silenced, or spoken up only to be shamed, fired, ridiculed and belittled. No person in this country should be above the law – including the president.”https://t.co/CqGBaSrzaf @bethreinhard
— E. Jean Carroll (@ejeancarroll) November 4, 2019
According to The Guardian Carroll’s lawsuit says, “The rape of a woman is a violent crime; compounding that crime with acts of malicious libel is abhorrent. Yet that is what Defendant Donald J Trump did to Plaintiff E Jean Carroll.”
The journalist revealed her rape allegation in June in her memoir, What Do We Need Men For? where she recounted how she stumbled across Trump in the Bergdorf Goodman department store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, one evening in late 1995 or early 1996, where Trump seized her, forced her against the wall of a dressing room and raped her. The suit notes that Carroll remained silent for more than two decades about the incident, though she says she told two close friends at the time.
The Washington Post reports, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham on Monday called the lawsuit “frivolous” and Carroll “a fraud.”
“Let me get this straight, Ms. Carroll is suing the President for defending himself against false allegations?” she said in a statement. “I guess since the book did not make any money she’s trying to get paid another way. The story she used to try and sell her trash book never happened, period. Her version of events is not even feasible if you’ve ever tried on clothing in a dressing room of a crowded department store. The lawsuit is frivolous and the story is a fraud — just like the author.”