A journalist has accused US President Donald Trump of sexual assault, claiming he raped her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s.

Celebrated columnist E Jean Carroll, now 75, makes the claim in her new book, an extract of which was published by New York magazine. She appears on the cover of the magazine wearing the exact outfit she claims Mr Trump attacked her in.

Mr Trump responded with a statement denying the allegation, calling the accusation “fake news” and claiming her motivation is to sell more copies of her book.

He said: “Regarding the ‘story’ by E Jean Carroll, claiming she once encountered me at Bergdorf Goodman 23 years ago. I’ve never met this person in my life. She is trying to sell a new book-that should indicate her motivation. It should be sold in the fiction section.

“Shame on those who make up false stories of assault to try to get publicity for themselves, or sell a book, or carry out a political agenda… It’s just as bad for people to believe it, particularly when there is zero evidence. Worse still for a dying publication to try to prop itself up by peddling fake news – it’s an epidemic.”

At the time of the alleged attack at the Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman, Mr Trump was a real estate developer married to Marla Maples and would have been around 50 years old.

Ms Carroll, who claims she has never had sex again since, was 52 and had begun her now famous advice column for Elle magazine, which she has written for 26 years.

Recounting the alleged attack in graphic detail, Ms Carroll wrote Mr Trump requested her help buying lingerie for a female friend and asked her to model a “lacy see-through bodysuit of lilac gray”. She joked that he should be the one trying it on and the pair went to the dressing room, with her intending for him to put the items on over his clothes for a laugh.

Once there, Ms Carroll claims Mr Trump launched an attack on her lasting three minutes.

She wrote: “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.”

A “colossal struggle” ensued, before he allegedly forced himself on her. Ms Carroll goes on to claim she managed to escape him and ran out of the changing room.

The alleged attack happened sometime in late 1995 or early 1996. Although she has only just made her claim publicly, New York magazine reported that two of Ms Carroll’s friends told the publication she had spoken of the incident to them at the time.

Ms Carroll said in the article, which included a picture appearing to show her with Mr Trump in 1987, she did not report the incident to the police because she felt she had no visual or lasting evidence of the events.

Pre-empting queries over why she waited more than two decades to make the claim, she wrote that she was intimidated by the death threats and dismissals of other women who came forward, describing herself as “a coward”.

Mr Trump is not the only man Ms Carroll makes claims against in her book, which, among others, details two assaults by two different males at separate times when she was just a child.

At least 19 women had made sexual misconduct claims against the president. All of them have been denied by Mr Trump.

This week Mr Trump officially launched his 2020 election campaign for a second term in office.

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