In June 2019, E. Jean Carroll shared an excerpt from her memoir, What Do We Need Men For?, in which she accused Donald Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s. According to AP, her lawyers served notice to one of Trump’s attorneys on Thursday, requesting he submit a saliva sample for “analysis and comparison against unidentified male DNA present on the dress” she wore at the time of the attack. They ask he does so on March 3 in Washington.
Carroll released the following statement:
“Unidentified male DNA on the dress could prove that Donald Trump not only knows who I am, but also that he violently assaulted me in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman and then defamed me by lying about it and impugning my character.”
In her book, Carroll describes helping Trump select lingerie before he allegedly pushed “his fingers around my private area” then thrust “his penis halfway—or completely, I’m not certain—inside me.” Trump responded exactly how one would expect him to: “Shame on those who make up false stories of assault to get publicity for themselves, or sell a book, or carry out a political agenda… Worse still for a dying publication to try to prop itself up by peddling fake news – it’s an epidemic,” adding that she is “not [his] type,” that she was “totally lying,” and he had “never met this person in my life.”
In November 2019, Carroll sued him for defamation. Since coming forward, Carroll has received several death threats.
Her lawyer Roberta Kaplan said it is “standard operating procedure” to request a sample. “We’ve requested a simple saliva sample from Mr. Trump to test his DNA, and there really is no valid basis for him to object.”