Writer E. Jean Carroll who accused Trump of sexual assault sues: "No one is above the law"

Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault

Widely respected New York journalist E. Jean Carroll filed a lawsuit against United States President Donald Trump for the atrocious statements he made after she publicly accused him of sexually assaulting her, The Guardian reports. The lawsuit was filed in the supreme court of New York state on Monday, November 4. In addition to repeating her allegation against the President in the lawsuit, she notes that it is the dialog and narrative he steered once the allegation had become public that is being debated. When Carroll's allegation emerged, Trump responded by claiming that he had never known or met her, and even went so far as to argue that he could never have raped her as "she's not [his] type." While it appears that we may have reached the fag end of the #MeToo movement, Carroll's actions are keeping it alive and sending a strong message to assaulters everywhere.

The writer first reiterated her assault in the suit, The Guardian states. She recounts that the incident took place 23 years ago at the upscale Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan, New York. As she helped him shop, Trump grabbed her, forced her against the wall of a changing room, and raped her. Carroll noted that she did not report the assault after it occurred but had informed two of her friends. One of her friends, journalist Lisa Birnbach, told the New York Times that she replied to Carroll at the time, “E Jean, he raped you. If he penetrated you that was rape. Let’s go to the police. [But] she said, ‘No, I’m not going to do that… I just want to go home.'”

However, the lawsuit fights the vicious statements Trump made after the allegation went public. The lawsuit reads, "The rape of a woman is a violent crime; compounding that crime with acts of malicious libel is abhorrent. Yet that is what Defendant Donald J Trump did to Plaintiff E Jean Carroll." It goes on to accuse the President of lashing out "with a series of false and defamatory statements. He denied the rape. But there was more: he also denied ever having met Carroll or even knowing who she was… He accused Carroll of lying about the rape in order to increase book sales and for good measure, insulted her physical appearance." Of course, evidence of this is available on his Twitter profile, where he flung numerous insults at the writer.

Carroll wrote in a statement announcing the lawsuit, "I am filing this lawsuit for every woman who’s been pinched, prodded, cornered, felt-up, pushed against a wall, grabbed, groped, assaulted, and has spoken up only to be shamed, demeaned, disgraced, passed over for promotion, fired and forgotten... No one, not even the president, is above the law." Her lawsuit adds to a web of sexual assaults President Trump is accused of. Recently, a former contestant on his reality television show The Apprentice also filed a defamation lawsuit against him for denying her claims of sexual assault. So far, Trump has failed to block the suit; it could go to trial next year. Furthermore, with impeachment becoming more and more certain as we approach the 2020 Presidential elections, it appears that the President has become entangled in a legal web of his own doing. Hopefully, those marred will receive much-deserved justice.