Donald Trump in trouble as lady sues for defamation

A woman who accused the United States of America’s President Donald Trump of raping her more than 23 years ago in a New York department store sued him on Monday over statements he made in June denying that the attack occurred and criticizing her for coming forward.

E. Jean Carroll, a longtime Elle magazine advice columnist, said in a complaint filed in a New York state court in Manhattan that Trump lied about attacking her, and “smeared her integrity, honesty, and dignity” by concocting a “swarm of related lies” to explain why she would make the incident up.

Carroll’s account of the alleged rape at Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue, which she said occurred between the autumn of 1995 and spring of 1996, had been published in New York magazine in June, excerpted from her memoir released the following month.

“The lawsuit is frivolous and the story is a fraud – just like the author,” White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement. “The story she used to try and sell her trash book never happened, period.”

Carroll’s lawsuit followed statements that Trump made after her account was published, including that he did not rape Carroll and had never met her, and that she was “totally lying” as part of an effort to boost book sales.

“I’ll say it with great respect: Number one, she’s not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?” he told The Hill newspaper in Washington.