Advice columnist E. Jean Carroll accuses Trump of sexual assault

Elle advice columnist E. Jean Carroll accuses U.S. President Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman more than 20 years ago, in her new book that was excerpted in New York Magazine.

The incident is one of six that Carroll, 75, writes about in her upcoming book, What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal, which chronicles attacks on her by "hideous men" during her life.

In the excerpt, Carroll, who had her own TV show in the '90s called Ask E. Jean, writes that Trump denies anything happened, as he has denied the accusations of sexual misconduct by at least 15 other women. On Friday, Trump again denied the allegation saying, "I've never met this person in my life."

In his statement, Trump called the accusation "fake news" and said there was no evidence.

Carroll alleges her encounter started out friendly when she bumped into Trump at one of the revolving doors to Bergdorf's in fall 1995 or spring 1996. He says, "You're that advice lady," while Carroll recognizes him as "that real estate tycoon."

Trump tells her he's there to buy something for "a girl." He wants her advice on what to buy, and, charmed, she agrees. They begin on the main floor looking at hats, and after some banter over a fur hat Trump sees the escalator and says, "lingerie!" or "underwear!"

At the lingerie department, Trump sees a lacy see-through bodysuit that he wants her to try on. As he coaxes her to the dressing room, she jokes to him that he should put it on.

The moment the dressing room door closed, Carroll claims Trump lunged at her, pushing her against the wall and putting his mouth against her lips.

"I am so shocked I shove him back," she writes in the book. "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 coatdress and pulls down my tights."

She said that he opened his overcoat, unzipped his pants and thrust his penis inside her. After a struggle, she pushed him off her and ran out of the dressing room, in an incident that lasted about three minutes, she says in the book.

Carrol said there were no attendants in the dressing room area, and she did not file a report with the New York Police Department. She said she told two journalist friends at the time, who later confirmed their accounts to New York Magazine.

She notes that the Donna Karan coatdress she wore that day still hangs on the back of her closet door, unworn and unlaundered.