The American editorialist accused the president in June of having raped her in a fitting room in the 1990s.
A prominent editorialist who publicly accused Donald Trump in June of raping her in the 1990s, on Monday (November 4th) sued the US president for defamation for allegedly inventing his charges.
In a complaint filed in a New York state court, the journalist and editorial writer She, Elizabeth Jean Carroll, resumes accusations she first revealed in June, in interviews and in a book, that Donald Trump raped her in a fitting room in posh New York department store Bergdorf , in the mid-1990s.
"I call this action for all women who have been harassed, assaulted, silenced, or dismissed or ridiculed for daring to speak publicly. No one in this country should be above the law, " tweeted Monday Mme Carroll.
"I have been harassed, assaulted, silenced, or spoken up only to be … https://t.co/06AxoHyqq4
A 27-page complaint
"I have never met this person in my life"had assured the US president in June, although an old photo showed him with the editorialist and her husband. "She's trying to sell a new book. This should make you understand what are his motives »he added.
It is for these denials that Mme Carroll, 75, defending himself for damages claiming an unspecified amount. "Trump knew that these statements were false (…) after lying about the fact that he attacked (Mme Carroll)he surrounded this lie with a series of other lies to try to explain why she would invent a rape charge. For that he insulted his integrity, his honesty, his dignity, all this in the national media ", says the 27-page complaint.
White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham resumed Monday's attack on the editorialist. "You mean that Mme Carroll assigns the president to court because he has defended false accusations? I guess her book did not yield anything, and she's trying to get some money back in a different way. "she told reporters."The complaint is unfounded and the story is a hoax, as its author"she added.
Advent of the #MeToo movement
M's complaintme Carroll recaptures point by point her story of June, recounting how she stumbled upon Donald Trump in the Manhattan store. How he had first asked him to help him look for a gift for a woman, before training him in the lingerie department, then in a fitting room, where he kissed her by force before raping her.
If Mme Carroll waited more than twenty years to talk about it – if not to two close friends, who have since confirmed her testimony – it's because she feared that the billionaire would attack her with an army of lawyers and "Ruin his life and his career". But the advent of the #MeToo movement in late 2017 made her change her mind, as did the growing number of women's reports of being harassed or assaulted by Donald Trump, she said.
Donald Trump is already sued for defamation since January 2017 by another accuser, Summer Zervos, who claims he kissed her and groped her in 2007, after she took part in the billionaire reality show "The Apprentice".
Donald Trump has always denied these accusations, revealed shortly before his election in 2016. His team then published the testimony of a cousin of Mme Zervos reproaching him for wanting to advertise at the expense of the president.
