E. Jean Carroll's friends confirm she told them about alleged Trump sexual assault in mid-'90s: 'Don't tell anybody'
Despite Donald Trump’s protests that “she’s not [his] type,” two women are corroborating writer E. Jean Carroll’s allegations that he sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-’90s.
In an excerpt from her forthcoming book, What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal, published by New York last week, Carroll revealed her claims against the president and noted that she’d confided in two friends at the time. One decried it as rape and urged her to report it; the other suggested silence for fear that Trump would ruin her reputation.
Now, both women have come forward to back up Carroll’s story. Lisa Birnbach and Carol Martin appeared on the New York Times podcast “The Daily” Thursday to share their version of events and confirm that Carroll told them about the alleged incident at the time.
Birnbach, the author of The Official Preppy Handbook, said she was home alone with her two children when Carroll called her immediately after fleeing Bergdorf Goodman, where she says Trump pulled at her tights and forcibly entered her against her will. As she’s noted in other interviews, Carroll acknowledged that she initially laughed at the incident out of shock.
“I remember her saying repeatedly, ‘He pulled down my tights’ ... which got me to think that was as far as it went,” Birnbach told Megan Twohey of the Times.
Though she too was initially taken aback and even humored by what Carroll said, Birnbach became more concerned as her friend went into further detail about her alleged encounter with Trump. She told Carroll she had been raped and needed to alert the police.
“It was horrible, we fought,” Birnbach said. “And I said, ‘Let’s go to the police.’ ‘No.’ ‘Come to my house.’ ‘No, I want to go home.’ ‘I’ll take you to the police.’ ‘No. It was 15 minutes of my life, it’s over. Don’t ever tell anybody, I just had to tell you.’”
Days later, she confided in Martin, who said Trump was powerful and had lots of lawyers. Martin, an anchor for New York City’s local CBS affiliate at the time, has admitted discouraging Carroll from coming forward.
“I said: ‘Don’t tell anybody. I wouldn’t tell anybody this,’” Martin, who had met Trump through work and knew a woman who’d dated him, recalled telling her friend.
Carroll took her advice — and is only now just sharing her story.
The longtime Elle columnist — who at first saw it more like a “struggle” rather than a crime, and felt guilty about what she says took place — has continued to resist describing her experience as rape.
“Every woman gets to choose her word,” Carroll told Twohey. “Every woman gets to choose how she describes it. This is my way of saying it. This is my word. My word is fight. My word is not the victim word.
“I have not been raped,” she continued. “Something has not been done to me. I fought.”
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