Columnist E. Jean Carroll Claims Donald Trump and Les Moonves Sexually Assaulted Her

UPDATE: 06/21/2019 - 3:01PM

President Trump issued a statement denying the story, claiming Carroll was just trying to sell books. He claimed there was no evidence, and said such "false accusations" diminish the severity of real assault.

He also claimed never to have met Carroll, despite the original article containing a picture of them together years before the alleged incident.

Read his statement below:

"Regarding the 'story' by E. Jean Carroll, claiming she once encountered me at Bergdorf Goodman 23 years ago. 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.

"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 — like Julie Swetnick who falsely accused Justice Brett Kavanaugh. It's just as bad for people to believe it, particularly when there is zero evidence. Worse still for a dying publication to try to prop itself up by peddling fake news — it's an epidemic.

"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.

"False accusations diminish the severity of real assault. All should condemn false accusations and any actual assault in the strongest possible terms.

"If anyone has information that the Democratic Party is working with Ms. Carroll or New York Magazine, please notify us as soon as possible. The world should know what's really going on. It is a disgrace and people should pay dearly for such false accusations."

ORIGINAL STORY: 06/21/2019 - 1:51pm

Columnist E. Jean Carroll has claimed she was sexually assaulted on separate occasions by both Donald Trump and Les Moonves.

In her book "What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal", the 75-year-old described being raped in a department store dressing room in the mid-90s by the then-real estate tycoon.

An excerpt, published by The Cut, details some of Carroll's 21 "Most Hideous Men of My Life List" — two of which are the former CBS CEO, and the now President of the United States.

She claimed she ran into Trump — who was still married to second wife Marla Maples at the time — at Bergdorf's in 1995 or 1996, where he had asked her to help him pick out a gift for an unnamed woman. After he asked her to try on lingerie to see how it looked on her, she claims they walked to a changing room where she had planned to tell him to try it on over his suit as a joke.

"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.

"I am so shocked I shove him back and start laughing again," she continued. "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."

"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."

She said the whole episode lasted no more than three minutes, and she did "not believe he ejaculated".

Two of Carroll's unnamed friends confirmed she told them about the incident at the time. She said one told her "He raped you" and pleaded with her to report the alleged incident to the police, while the other warned: "Tell no one. Forget it! He has 200 lawyers. He'll bury you."

Another allegation involved Moonves, whom she said she had just interviewed at the Hotel Nikko in Beverly Hills around February of 1997.

"The short, gravel-voiced Moonves apparently takes one look at me — a 50-something journalist in a pair of old brown-and-beige oxfords — and his life is no longer his own," she wrote.

Following the interview, she said he followed her into the elevator and called her "smart" for selecting "an out-of-the-way hotel." She said he then, "pants bursting with demands," moved on her "like an octopus" -- "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."

In September 2018, Moonves stepped down as chairman of CBS amid multiple accusations of sexual assault.

Both incidents were refuted by both men. Moonves told New York Magazine he "emphatically denies" the incident occurred; while the White House responded: "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."

At the start of the excerpt, Carroll noted her compilation of 21 men was so hideous, that Matt Lauer, Bill O'Reilly, "and the giant dingleberry Charlie Rose" whom she also had encounters with, did not even make the list. The late Fox CEO Roger Ailes, however, did.

Carroll also explained why she is telling her story now.

"I run the risk of making him more popular by revealing what he did," she explained of Trump. "His admirers can't get enough of hearing that he's rich enough, lusty enough, and powerful enough to be sued by and to pay off every splashy porn star or Playboy Playmate who 'comes forward,' so I can't imagine how ecstatic the poor saps will be to hear their favorite Walking Phallus got it on with an old lady in the world's most prestigious department store."