U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that writer and columnist Jean E. Carroll was lying about him sexually assaulting her and that she was not his type.
“I’ll say it with great respect,” Mr. Trump said to The Hill , a media outlet that covers Capitol Hill. “No. 1, she’s not my type. No.2, it never happened. It never happened, OK?”
Mr. Trump went to say that Ms. Carroll was “totally lying” and said that he did not know her.
Ms. Carroll, 75, is a writer and columnist for Elle magazine, said that Mr. Trump had assaulted her in 1995 or 1996, in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman, a high-end store in New York City. Ms. Carroll had run into Mr. Trump there she says, and agreed to help him shop for a gift. Her story was first published last week by New York magazine, as part of excerpts from Ms. Carroll’s new book.
Ms. Carroll told two of her close friends, as per what she says in the book excerpt. One friend asked her to go to the police and the other said that Mr. Trump would “bury” her with his “200 lawyers”.
The New York Times reported that it had confirmed with both of her friends that Ms. Carroll had spoken to them about the incident.
Mr. Trump has used the explanation of someone not being his type or his “first choice”, when confronted by sexual assault allegations.
A total of 16 women, including Ms. Carroll, have publicly accused Mr. Trump of sexual misconduct. The President has denied all allegations. Hours before Mr. Trump’s interview with The Hill , Ms. Carroll had said that nothing had come of all the earlier assault allegations.
“With all the women it’s the same: He denies it, he turns it around, he attacks, and he threatens — and then everybody forgets it until the next woman comes along,” Ms. Carroll had told CNN . “I am sick of it. I am sick of it.”
“I love that I’m not his type. Don’t you love that you’re not his type?”, Ms. Carroll told CNN ’s Anderson Cooper on June 24 night.
Ms. Carroll , a registered-Democrat, told the Washington Post on June 21 that she had voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Last Saturday morning, Mr. Trump compared his situation to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s .
“It’s a total false accusation and I don’t know anything about her. And she’s made this charge against others,” Mr. Trump said, drawing a parallel between the current situation and the Kavanaugh case.
The Supreme Court justice was publicly accused by three women of sexual assault in his younger years but was not disqualified from the confirmation process and eventually got confirmed.
“You can’t do that for the sake of publicity. New York magazine is a failing magazine. It’s ready to go out of business from what I hear. They’ll do anything they can,” Mr. Trump had said.
A photo, from c.1987, of Mr. Trump and his former wife Ivana, talking with Ms. Carroll and her husband was also published by New York magazine along with Ms. Carroll’s book excerpt.
“I have absolutely no idea who she is. There’s some picture where we’re shaking hands .... I have my coat on, I have my wife standing next to me,” he said, referring to the photo.
