A woman who accused President Donald Trump of raping her in the 1990s is now looking for a sample of his DNA, the Associated Press reports.
Longtime advice columnist E. Jean Carroll’s lawyers are working to determine if his "genetic material" is on the black wool coat-style dress that she said she wore during the incident. They served notice to a Trump lawyer Thursday to hand over a sample in March for "analysis and comparison against unidentified male DNA present on the dress," according to the AP.
Trump denied Carroll's first allegation against him, to which she filed a defamation suit. She is seeking a retraction from the president, as well as unspecified damages. Carroll's lawyer had the black dress she allegedly wore during the incident tests, and a mixture of at least four other individuals' DNA was found on the sleeves, including male DNA.
"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," Carroll said in a statement, according to the AP. Other people have been tested, and subsequently eliminated as potential suspects.
Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, doesn't think the request for Trump's DNA is odd, calling it "standard operating procedure."
"As a result, 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,” Kaplan explained.
The president has denied the accusations, claiming in June that the columnist was "totally lying" and that he had "never met this person in my life." Trump's legal team has made various attempts to have the case thrown out, to no success.
