Columnist E. Jean Carroll filed suit Monday against President Donald Trump for defamation.
"Decades ago, the now president of the United States raped me," Carroll said in a statement released Monday. "When I had the courage to speak out about the attack, he defamed my character, accused me of lying for personal gain, even insulted my appearance. No woman should have to face this."
Carroll detailed the alleged attack, which took place roughly two decades in a New York City department store, in her new book What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal. An excerpt of the book which included the violent encounter was published earlier this year by New York Magazine.
"When Carroll's account was published," says the suit (pdf), filed in the Manhattan Supreme Court, "Trump lashed out with a series of false and defamatory statements. He denied the rape. But there was more: he also denied ever having met Carroll or even knowing who she was Through express statements and deliberate implications he accused Carroll of lying about the rape in order to increase book sales, carry out a political agenda, advance a conspiracy with the Democratic Party, and make money. He also deliberately implied that she had falsely accused other men of rape. For good measure, he insulted her physical appearance."
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"Each of these statements was false," the suit adds. "Each of theme was defamatory."
"He knew who she was when he raped her, and he knew who she was in 2019," her lawyers wrote.
The White House swiftly dismissed the new lawsuit.
"The lawsuit is frivolous and the story is a fraud—just like the author," press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement to TheWrap.
