The focus has just shifted to another charge of sexual assault which makes it 22 women who have come out alleging sexual assault by US President Donald Trump.
In a cover story in New York-based Magazine, writer and celebrated agony aunt E. Jean Carroll claimed Trump assaulted her in a dressing room of a New York department store, where she was helping him to buy a gift for a female friend.
How the assault took place?
According to Carroll, the incident took place in the Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman sometime in late 1995 or early 1996. Trump was around 50 and married to Marla Marples while Carroll was 52 and working for Elle magazine called Ask E Jean.
Trump asked Carroll for advice on a gift for a female friend. Trump picked a “lacy see-through bodysuit of lilac gray” and asked her to model it for him; after agreeing to his request they moved toward the dressing room. When they entered the dressing room, Trump lunged at her and initiated the sexual assault.
“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 coat dress and pulls down my tights,” she writes.
In a “colossal struggle”, he unzipped his trousers and forced his fingers around her genitals and thrust his penis “halfway – or completely, I’m not certain – inside me.”Carrol then managed to force him off her and escaped the dressing room.
Trump’s response – I had never met this woman
In his defense, Trump denied the allegations and accused Carroll for seeking ‘cheap publicity’ to sell her book.
“Shame on those who make up false stories of assault to try to get publicity for themselves, or sell a book, or carry out a political agenda — like Julie Swetnick who falsely accused Justice Brett Kavanaugh,” Trump said.
“It’s just as bad for people to believe it, particularly when there is zero evidence. Worse still for a dying publication to try to prop itself up by peddling fake news — it’s an epidemic.”
Trump, who has a long history of sexual harassment allegations, also dragged Democrats in this controversy. He alleged that Carroll is working with the Democrats.
“If anyone has information that the Democratic Party is working with Ms. Carroll or New York Magazine, please notify us as soon as possible,” Trump said in the statement. “The world should know what’s really going on. It is a disgrace and people should pay dearly for such false accusations.”
Is Trump really a victim here?
This is not the first time Donald Trump has faced accusation of a sexual assault or harassment. With the freshest allegation, President Trump has been accused of at least 22 cases of harassment, groping and forceful kissing till now. Even, his first wife Ivana Trump has accused him of rape during their 1989 divorce litigation but later withdrew that claim.
Trump was recorded bragging that a celebrity like himself “can do anything” to women, including “just start kissing them … I don’t even wait” and “grab ’em by the pussy”.
Trump subsequently characterized those comments as “locker room talk” and denied actually behaving that way toward women, and he also apologized for the crude language. Many of his accusers stated that Trump’s denials provoked them into going public with their allegations.
Trump is yet to file the legal suit which he declared in his campaign against the women who raised their voice against him before the 2016 elections, and with growing list of these cases, his credibility may be affected negatively in the upcoming elections.
For a strong or controversial public figure, sexual harassment allegations can be taken as path to quick and cheap publicity by attention seekers, but such a huge number of allegations are way too much, even for individuals like Donald Trump.
Obviously, Trump is once again denying the allegations and putting the blame on democrats, biased media and stating that he is a victim of conspiracies.
