E. Jean Carroll ‘sleeps with a loaded gun near her bed’

An acclaimed journalist who accused President Trump of raping her in a New York department store in the 1990s now sleeps with a loaded gun beside her bed, after she received a wave of online death threats.

E. Jean Carroll, who enjoyed a lengthy career as an advice columnist, described the fallout from the New York Magazine excerpt of her book, which detailed an alleged sex attack by the then-real estate mogul in Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman store. 

She said she had received so many threats that she had been forced to stop looking at her social media platforms, and for the first time in her life put bullets loaded into the handgun kept in her bedroom, she told the Guardian on Friday.  

E Jean Carroll, who enjoyed a lengthy career as an advice columnist, described the fallout from the New York Magazine excerpt of her book, which detailed an alleged sex attack by the then-real estate mogul in Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman store

‘I’m not stupid,’ Carroll said, referring to the threats she has received in the wake of the explosive claims that stoked the ire of the president, sparking a tit-for-tat series of comments between the pair.

Despite the death threats, Carroll also claims she has been buoyed by the support of many women who have written to her in gratitude.    

‘The mail bag is huge, I can’t begin to get through it. Women are telling me their stories – and that’s the biggest thank you you can get.’

The storm began when the New York Magazine was given a preview of her book What Do We Need Men For? in which she gave a detailed account of her alleged forced sexual encounter with Trump, who at the time was married to Marla Maples.

Carroll added that she hesitated for years coming forward with her allegations, describing herself as a ‘coward’. 

She also suspected that branding Trump a sex attacker might paradoxically help him politically.

‘It’s the image of a male leader – think Alexander the Great, think Genghis Khan. Think John F Kennedy. Great leaders take what they want without asking,’ she said.

The storm began when the New York Magazine was given a preview of her book What Do We Need Men For? in which she gave a detailed account of her alleged forced sexual encounter with Trump, who at the time was married to Marla Maples

The storm began when the New York Magazine was given a preview of her book What Do We Need Men For? in which she gave a detailed account of her alleged forced sexual encounter with Trump, who at the time was married to Marla Maples

Trump allegedly shoved Carroll against a wall, unzipped his pants and forcibly penetrated her in an attack she claims lasted three minutes. Carroll claims she was on her way out of the store when Trump asked her for help with a gift and guided her towards the lingerie department

She appears on the June magazine’s cover in the very same coat dress that she claims she was wearing on that day in the fall of 1995 or spring of 1996 when a chance encounter with Trump allegedly turned into a sexual assault.

Trump allegedly shoved Carroll against a wall, unzipped his pants and forcibly penetrated her in an attack she claims lasted three minutes. 

Carroll claims she was on her way out of the store when Trump asked her for help with a gift and guided her towards the lingerie department. 

Carroll was doing a daily talk show called Ask Carroll at the time for Ailes’ America’s Talking cable network, which is how she drew Trump’s attention. ‘Hey, you’re that advice lady!’ said Trump according to Carroll.

That was allegedly followed by a request from the real estate developer, whose Trump Tower is located just one block south of Bergdorf Goodman.

‘Come advise me. I gotta buy a present,’ said Trump according to Carroll, who tried to point out a few ideas in the store’s main foyer.

When they were all dismissed by Trump, she asked the age of the woman he was shopping for, prompting him to ask her the same question. 

The store in which the alleged sex attack is said to have happened in the 1990s

The store in which the alleged sex attack is said to have happened in the 1990s

Trump rape accuser E Jean Carroll confirms she never washed the dress she wore during the alleged assault while Mayor Bill de Blasio promises to launch a full criminal investigation

Trump rape accuser E Jean Carroll confirms she never washed the dress she wore during the alleged assault while Mayor Bill de Blasio promises to launch a full criminal investigation

She was 52 at the time, two years older than Trump, and when she told him he allegedly started laughing and said: ‘You’re so old.’ 

He then said ‘lingerie’, according to Carroll, and the pair headed upstairs to that department. 

Once there, Carroll claims she tried to diffuse repeated attempts to get her to model one of the wears by suggesting Trump try them on in a nearby dressing room. It was when they went to one of those rooms that the alleged assault took place. 

‘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. I am so shocked I shove him back and start laughing again,’ writes Carroll. 

‘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 continues: ‘I am astonished by what I’m about to write: I keep laughing. 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.’

Carroll claims that she fought off Trump before she was able to flee from the dressing room and out of the store.

She did not report the alleged assault to police, but did tell two friends she said, and has kept the dress ever since.     

Trump quickly dismissed the claims and appealed online: ‘If anyone has information that the Democratic Party is working with Ms. Carroll or New York Magazine, please notify us as soon as possible,’ he said.

‘The world should know what’s really going on. It is a disgrace and people should pay dearly for such false accusations.’ 

He added: ‘Ms. Carroll & New York Magazine: No pictures? No surveillance? No video? No reports? No sales attendants around?? I would like to thank Bergdorf Goodman for confirming they have no video footage of any such incident, because it never happened.’

Carroll is now the 16th woman to accuse the president of sexual misconduct. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk