URGENT – Columnist sues Trump and says he defamed her over sexual assault claim

(CNN) — Longtime magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll on Monday sued President Donald Trump for defamation over what she says were his lies denying her public accusation in June that he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s. The lawsuit, which includes a detailed account of the incident in which Trump allegedly raped Carroll in a dressing room at luxury Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman, was filed in New York state Supreme Court. After Carroll went public with her account earlier this year, initially through a book excerpt in New York magazine, Trump denied the incident had occurred, calling it “totally false. ” Trump said of Carroll that he “never met this person” — responses the lawsuit filed Monday says were “false” and “defamatory. “Neither Marc Kasowitz, an attorney for Trump, nor a White House spokesman immediately responded to requests for comment Monday in response to Carroll’s lawsuit.