Did Trump Rape E. Jean Carroll? Elle Collumnist Says He Got Her Fired

A longtime advice columnist at Elle magazine said she was fired because President Trump accused her of lying about being raped by him in a department store dressing room two decades ago.

E. Jean Carroll announced she was fired Tuesday by the publication after 26 years because Trump “ridiculed my reputation, laughed at my looks and dragged me through the mud.”

Carroll made the rape accusation against Trump in June, claiming he assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in 1995 or 1996. She filed a defamation suit in November after Trump called her a liar. The suit says it seeks to “demonstrate that even a man as powerful as Trump can be held accountable under the rule of law.”

She is seeking a DNA sample to match against a sample taken from the dress or shoes she wore the day of the alleged attack to prove the veracity of her allegation.

In a court filing Tuesday, Carroll accused Trump of attempting to delay the case. His attorneys have sought to suspend the litigation, arguing a sitting president cannot be sued. That question is under consideration by the New York Court of Appeals in a case filed by Summer Zervos, a former Trump “Apprentice” contestant who claims he sexually assaulted and defamed her.

“Courts are required to give deference to the president of the United States,” Trump attorney Marc Kasowitz has argued.

Trump asked the court to dismiss Carroll’s suit, but Judge Doris Ling-Cohan denied the motion last month because no basis for dismissal was presented.

Carroll said in the lawsuit she had bumped into Trump while shopping at the Fifth Avenue store, and the two bantered. She said Trump “seized Carroll, forced her up against a dressing room wall, pinned her in place with his shoulder, and raped her.”

Carroll told friends about the alleged assault at the time but did not report it to police fearing “Trump would ruin her life and livelihood.” She changed her mind about going public after the Harvey Weinstein scandal exploded and the #MeToo movement took off.