A prominent advice columnist has accused Donald Trump of raping her in a dressing room more than 20 years ago.

In an article published on Friday in New York magazine's website, E. Jean Carroll alleges the US president sexually assaulted her when she met him in Bergdorf Goodman in late 1995 or early 1996.

Trump has denied the claims, saying he has never met the American journalist - well-known for writing the Ask E. Jean column in Elle magazine - and insists she has created the story to sell her new book.

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In an excerpt from her upcoming book, titled, What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal, the 75-year-old writer says she ran into Trump in "the fall of 1995 or the spring of 1996" and immediately recognised him as "that real-estate tycoon".

When Trump - who was married to Marla Maples at the time - enlisted her to help him buy a present for "a girl," she agreed, and they joked around, throwing underwear back and forth in the store. When he suggested she try on an item of lingerie, they headed to the dressing room, where she claims, Trump raped her.

"The moment the dressing-room door is closed, he lunges at me, pushes me against the wall, hitting my head quite badly, and puts his mouth against my lips," Carroll wrote. "I am so shocked I shove him back and start laughing again. 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."

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She continued: "The next moment, still wearing correct business attire, shirt, tie, suit jacket, overcoat, he opens the overcoat, unzips his pants, and, forcing his fingers around my private area, thrusts his penis halfway — or completely, I'm not certain — inside me. It turns into a colossal struggle."

The columnist - who said she hadn't gone public with the story until now due to fear of being threatened or attacked - told NBC Nightly News on Friday that she eventually fought off Trump and then fled.

After the alleged sexual assault, Carroll told two friends, one of whom advised her to report the billionaire to the police. However, the other advised the writer against doing so, telling her: "Forget it! He has 200 lawyers. He'll bury you."

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In her New York Magazine website article, Carroll alleges five other attacks by "awful men," one of whom is former CEO of CBS, Les Moonves, who resigned in 2018 after allegations of sexual misconduct. Moonves' representative told New York magazine he "emphatically denies" the incident.

In a statement, Donald Trump has also denied all claims of wrongdoing, and encouraged anyone with information that the Democratic Party is working with Carroll or New York Magazine to notify the White House.

"I've never met this person in my life," the US president said in a statement. "She is trying to sell a new book - that should indicate her motivation. It should be sold in the fiction section."

As first reported by The Associated Press, writer E. Jean Carroll, who has accused President Donald Trump of raping her in the 1990s is now requesting a DNA sample to determine whether or not his genetic material is on a dress she alleges she was wearing at the time of the incident.

In a request sent to President Trump’s lawyers via email on Thursday, Ms. Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta A. Kaplan, asks that a sample of saliva be submitted on March 2 in Washington, DC.

Per the New York Times, Lawrence S. Rosen, a lawyer representing the president in the defamation suit filed by Ms. Carroll back in November, has not responded to a request for comment.

Ms. Carroll's initial public allegation that President Trump had raped her came via a book excerpt published last June by New York Magazine, in which she writes that Trump raped her in the late 1990s in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan.

Speaking to CNN, Ms. Carroll, 76, claims that Trump "just went at it", allegedly cornering her in a dressing room at the luxury department store, adding that "he pulled down my tights, and it was a fight. I want women to know that I did not stand there, I did not freeze, I was not paralyzed, which is a reaction could have had because it's so shocking. No, I fought."

Below is the full interview with CNN from June of last year in which Ms. Caroll details the alleged incident:

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Ms. Caroll - who was 52 at the time of the alleged attack - claims she has kept the black wool coat-style dress that she was wearing on the day of the alleged incident.

She says she has worn the dress just once since the purported attack, and that was when she was photographed for the cover of the New York magazine issue that included the book excerpt containing the rape accusation.

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Kaplan has since had the black wool coat-style dress tested at the Forensic Analytical Crime Lab in California, and a lab report exclusively obtained by the Associated Press states that DNA found on the sleeves was a mix of at least four people - with at least one of them being male.

The report shows that several other people - whose names have been redacted - have also been tested and eliminated as possible contributors to the mix.

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Writing to her 45,000+ Twitter followers, Ms. Carroll said: "The dress has been tested. We have the results. My attorney @kaplanrobbie has served notice to @realDonaldTrump 's attorney to submit a sample of Trump's DNA."

Speaking to The Hill at the time of Carroll's accusation, Trump said she was "totally lying", adding: "I’ll say it with great respect: Number one, she’s not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?"

Per the Independent, Ms. Carroll filed a defamation suit against President Trump back in November of last year, after the POTUS vehemently denied her allegations. The suit reportedly states that Trump smeared her, and that by branding her a liar, her career as an advice columnist for Elle magazine has been damaged.

Ms. Carroll is seeking unspecified damages and a retraction of President Trump's statements.

E. Jean Carroll has spoken out after a jury ordered Donald Trump to pay her $83.3 million in the defamation suit.

Back in 2019, Carroll - a longtime advice columnist - penned a story in New York magazine accusing the 45th President of the United States of sexually assaulting her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.

Trump - who was the president at the time - immediately denied the allegations, calling the 80-year-old journalist a "whack job" and alleging that he had never met her, as reported by CBS News.

Following Carroll's publication, the 77-year-old continuously repeatedly attacked and defamed her in social media posts, public appearances, and even in court.

Donald Trump is ordered to pay $83.3 million in the defamation suit. Credit: GWR/Star Max / Getty

The former Elle magazine writer filed two defamation lawsuits over the statements Trump made about her in 2019 and 2022, contending that his disparagements fuelled abusive messages, online vitriol, and death threats against her.

In the first trial, which went underway in May 2023, a jury found Trump liable for defamation and sexual abuse and awarded Carroll $5 million.

The second trial was then set up for the jury to determine how much compensation was meant to account for the harm they found his comments had done to her reputation and emotional well-being.

After a contentious two-week civil trial in a federal courtroom in Manhattan, on Friday (January 26), the nine-member jury ordered the ex-president to pay the writer a staggering $18.3 million in compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive damages.

The compensatory amount included $11 million for repairing her reputation and $7.3 million for the emotional distress she has endured - with Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, remarking that the money should be enough to "make him stop" defaming her client.

E. Jean Carroll filed two defamation lawsuits over the statements Trump made about her in 2019 and 2022. Credit: GWR/Star Max / Getty

Trump abruptly stormed out of the courtroom during closing arguments with his Secret Service security detail so he was not present to hear the verdict. His departure came moments after Judge Kaplan (no relation to Carroll's lawyer) threatened to jail Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba, for continuing to speak after he had told her to be quiet, as reported by BBC.

Following the jury's decision on Friday, Carroll shared a powerful statement that read: "This is a great victory for every woman who stands up when she's been knocked down, and a huge defeat for every bully who has tried to keep a woman down."

Her attorney also spoke out about the ruling, sharing: "Today’s verdict proves that the law applies to everyone in our country, even the rich, even the famous, even former presidents.

"There is a way to stand up to someone like Donald Trump, who cares more about wealth, fame, and power than respecting the law," Roberta Kaplan continued. "Standing up to a bully takes courage and bravery; it takes someone like E. Jean Carroll. We thank the jury for standing up for E. Jean and the rule of law."

The former leader repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, or even that he had ever met Ms Carroll, including on Friday morning. But following the verdict he abstained from slamming her directly when he denounced the defamation trial's outcome in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social.

"I fully disagree with both verdicts and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party," he wrote, according to the outlet. "Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon. They have taken away all First Amendment Rights. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!"

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Following a two-week trial, a New York jury in federal court has determined that Donald Trump did sexually abuse E Jean Carroll.

The verdict stems from an incident that occurred nearly 30 years in a Manhattan department store.

The former US president did not appear in court to testify, but has repeatedly denied the accusation that was made against him.

The jury was made up of nine individuals, with US District Judge Lewis Kaplan telling them prior to their verdict on Tuesday: "I know you're going to do your duty under your oath to render a just and true verdict."

E Jean Carroll outside the Southern District of New York Court last month. Credit: Tribune Content Agency LLC / Alamy

Despite the statute of limitations running out on the case, the state of New York recently enacted a law that allows for decades-old sexual assault claims to be filed as civil lawsuits, per BBC News.

After determining that Trump sexually abused Carroll, she was awarded $2 million in damages.

The jury also found that Trump defamed Carroll, after he previously described her accusations as a "con job" in a social media post in October of 2022. For this, Carroll was also awarded a further $3 million in damages (which is made of of $2.7 million in compensatory damaged and a further $280,000 of which are punitive).

Another $20,000 was awarded to Carroll in punitive damages against Trump over a claim of battery.

The jurors, however, disagreed with Carroll's allegation that the former POTUS raped her.

Trump, 76, has since branded the verdict a "disgrace", writing in a post for his TRUTH social media platform: "I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS. THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE - A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!"

Carroll, 78, a long-time columnist for Elle magazine, first publicly made the causation against Trump in a book in 2019.

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In her lawsuit against the former president, Carroll's legal team wrote: "Trump’s underlying sexual assault severely injured Carroll, causing significant pain and suffering, lasting psychological harms, loss of dignity, and invasion of her privacy," whilst adding: "His recent defamatory statement has only added to the harm that Carroll had already suffered."]

But following the filing of the lawsuit, Trump's attorney, Alina Habba, attempted to dismiss Carroll's claims, stating: "While I respect and admire individuals that come forward, this case is, unfortunately, an abuse of the purpose of this Act which creates a terrible precedent and runs the risk of delegitimizing the credibility of actual victims."

In a previous interview with CNN, Carroll said that Trump "just went at it", allegedly cornering her in a dressing room at the luxury department store, adding that "he pulled down my tights, and it was a fight. I want women to know that I did not stand there, I did not freeze, I was not paralyzed, which is a reaction could have had because it's so shocking. No, I fought."

She told the New York court during the trial: "As I'm sitting here today I can still feel it."

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Attorney Roberta Kaplan - who represented E. Jean Carroll in her defamatory case against Donald Trump - has made further allegations about the former president following her victory in the courtroom.

Back in 2019, Carroll - a longtime advice columnist - penned a story in New York Magazine accusing the former POTUS of sexually assaulting her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. Trump - who was in the Oval Office at the time of the publication - immediately denied the allegations, calling the 80-year-old journalist a "whack job" and alleging that he had never met her, as reported by CBS News.

Following Carroll's claims, the 77-year-old continuously repeatedly attacked and defamed her in social media posts, public appearances, and even in court. However, courts have since sided with Carroll.

Donald Trump. Credit: GWR/Star Max / Getty

In the first trial, which went underway in May 2023, a jury found Trump liable for defamation and sexual abuse and awarded Carroll $5 million. The second trial was then set up for the jury to determine how much compensation was meant to account for the harm they found his comments had done to her reputation and emotional well-being.

After a contentious two-week civil trial in a federal courtroom in Manhattan last month, the nine-member jury ordered the ex-president to pay the writer a staggering $18.3 million in compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive damages.

However, the controversy has not ended there.

Now, Kaplan has claimed that Trump threw documents across a table and abruptly left the room during a legal deposition at Mar-a-Lago.

E. Jean Carroll and attorney Roberta Kaplan leaving Manhattan Federal Court on January 26. Credit: GWR/Star Max / Getty

She claims that the dispute arose after Kaplan rejected Trump's request to work through a lunch break and informed the former POTUS that lunch was being provided her her.

Kaplan shared the details of the alleged encounter on the George Conway Explains it All (to Sarah Longwell) podcast. She recounted the moment when Trump, visibly frustrated, asked how they would manage lunch arrangements during the deposition at Mar-a-Lago.

"And then you could kind of see the wheel spinning in his brain. You could really almost see it," Kaplan told Longwell and Conway. "And he said, ‘Well, you’re here in Mar-a-Lago. What do you think you’re going to do for lunch? Where are you going to get lunch?’"

Kaplan then says she told Trump that his attorneys had "graciously offered to provide" her team with lunch — which is a common civil practice between opposing legal teams.

"At which point there was a huge pile of documents, exhibits, sitting in front of him, and he took the pile and he just threw it across the table. And stormed out of the room,” Kaplan shared, adding that Trump specifically yelled at his lawyer Alina Habba for providing them lunch.

"He really yelled at Alina for that. He was so mad at Alina," Kaplan claimed.

Kaplan also says she rejected the former president’s request to work through a lunch break because he believed the deposition to be a waste of time.

The incident occurred in the midst of a lawsuit alleging Trump's involvement with a fraudulent marketing company, per CNN. While the legal battle reached a resolution last month - with a federal judge dismissing the suit - the deposition's lunchtime dispute has since garnered attention following Kaplan's podcast appearance.

In addition to the lunchtime incident, Kaplan revealed another moment from the deposition's conclusion. As she announced the end of her questioning, Trump made an obscure comment, saying, "See you next Tuesday." The phrase is commonly used as a derogatory coded euphemism... and Kaplan initially found it puzzling, as their next meeting was scheduled for a Wednesday.

"We come in the room and I say, ‘I’m done asking questions’ and immediately I hear from the other side, ‘Off the record. Off the record. Off the record.’ So they must have planned it," Kaplan told the hosts. "And [Trump] looks at me from across the table and he says, ‘See you next Tuesday.'"

Kaplan's colleagues later explained the intended meaning behind Trump's comment, and she admitted that had she been aware of it at the time, her reaction might have been different.

Kaplan says she was unware of what the term meant. Credit: Slaven Vlasic / Stringer / Getty

"I wasn’t in on the joke, so I had no idea," she explained. "Then we get into the car and my colleagues are like, ‘Robbie, do you know what that means?’ And I’m like, ‘No, what are you talking about?’ They tell me and I’m like, oh my God, thank God I didn’t know because had I known, I for sure would have gotten angry. "

CNN reported that it had sought comments from representatives for both Trump and Alina Habba regarding the deposition and subsequent revelations.

Reflecting on what her recent victories have meant for her career, Kaplan described last month's verdict as a defining moment.

When asked which victory felt more significant – winning the defamation case against Trump or successfully challenging the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, ultimately leading to the Supreme Court's decision in favor of same-sex marriage – Kaplan pointed to her recent triumph.

"I spent my whole life devoted to the principle that we have a rule of law and we have a judicial system that works," Kaplan said. "And that’s what makes us a constitutional democracy, that’s — at least until recently — was to be admired worldwide. And it was starting, I mean, it is in times looking like that may not be true.

"This case validated that at least as of now, we still have all that."

Featured image credit: Slaven Vlasic / Stringer / Getty