E. Jean Carroll says she told two friends after President Trump allegedly sexually assaulted her in the mid-1990's. Those two friends say they remember it all.
Last week, an excerpt from the advice columnist's forthcoming book published in New York Magazine described how Trump allegedly assaulted her in a dressing room. New York Magazine corroborated the account with two friends of Carroll's who she reportedly told about the assault, but who remained unnamed in the article. But in a Thursday interview with The New York Times, those women — author Lisa Birnbach and former news anchor Carol Martin — went on the record.
Both Birnbach and Martin remember hearing Carroll's allegation, and recounted their responses to Carroll for both New York Magazine and the Times. Birnbach told Carroll to call the police, she told the Times, while Martin said she told Carroll "I wouldn't tell anybody this." Both women say they'd met Trump before the alleged assault, with Birnbach having interviewed him at Mar-a-Lago and Martin saying she had a friend who dated him.
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The Times also spoke with Carroll following last Friday's article, and she again recounted her allegation against Trump. She says she kept silent for years because she viewed the alleged assault as partially her fault. And while she no longer believes that, Carroll "does not want to consider herself a victim and does not describe the incident as a rape," the Times writes.
Read more in The New York Times, or listen to portions of the Times' interviews with Birnbach and Martin at The Daily.
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