In a cover story for New York magazine, a renowned columnist accused President Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s.

E. Jean Carroll, who has written an advice column in Elle magazine since 1993, wrote in the stunning story that she ran into Trump, then a businessman, at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City. They recognized each other and began chatting.

Trump, according to Carroll, said he was seeking a gift for a girl, and pressured Carroll into a dressing room.

There, she claims Trump raped her:

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. 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. It turns into a colossal struggle. I am wearing a pair of sturdy black patent-leather four-inch Barneys high heels, which puts my height around six-one, and I try to stomp his foot. I try to push him off with my one free hand — for some reason, I keep holding my purse with the other — and I finally get a knee up high enough to push him out and off and I turn, open the door, and run out of the dressing room.

In the piece Carroll wrote she did not report the alleged assault to the police, but told two close friends. They both confirmed her account when New York magazine reached out.

The White House issued a statement denying it: “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.”

The New York story is an excerpt from an upcoming book by Carroll titled, What Do We Need Men For? She also claims Les Moonves, the former head of CBS ousted last year over misconduct allegations, forced himself on her following an interview.

In next week’s cover story, E. Jean Carroll shares for the first time her violent encounter with Donald Trump. The coatdress she was wearing that day has hung in her closet ever since; she wore it again for the first time for her portrait with New York https://t.co/yPaLsRoVcH pic.twitter.com/Tx2HAzt1mi — New York Magazine (@NYMag) June 21, 2019

In coming forward with her allegation, Carroll joined more than a dozen other women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct.

[Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images]

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