July 6 (UPI) — A woman who once dated Senate candidate Graham Platner says that he forced her to have sex with him about five years ago.
Jenny Racicot, 41, said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner for more than two years, Politico reported. She said he was intoxicated when he entered her home in Maine one night in 2021 and assaulted her while she told him repeatedly to stop.
“I remember him grabbing my pelvis and being really forceful of me,” she told Politico. “I remember the specific moment where I thought to myself, like, ‘This is no longer my choice.’ “
Platner, a Democrat, denied the accusations Tuesday, saying any claim of non-consensual behavior is “categorically untrue” and that the allegations are “troubling, serious and false.”
He said, however, that he is “mindful of the political reality (the allegation) will inflect” and that he is taking “time to reflect on the best path forward.”
He is the Democratic nominee running against Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. The party has until July 13 to replace him with another candidate if he withdraws, The New York Times reported.
Racicot previously told The Times that Platner came to her house in 2021 while drunk and said his behavior was “reckless” and “unsettling.” She did not elaborate at that time. Politico published the new interview Monday.
The Platner campaign also issued a statement saying that the candidate “vigorously denies” the allegations, which it called “coached and coordinated by out-of-state establishment operatives.”
“For a year, opponents of this campaign have thrown everything they can at Graham —calling him a Nazi, a war criminal, a communist,” the campaign statement said. “None of it has been true, and this is no different.”
Politico said it interviewed Racicot three times over the past two weeks, interviewed another person she confided in and reviewed documents including emails between Racicot and her therapist and messages between Racicot and an acquaintance she warned about Platner.
Collins said in a statement that the “allegations are appalling,” The Times reported.
Other Democratic candidates and politicians, including Rep. RoKhanna, D-Calif., a supporter of Platner’s, called on him to drop out of the race Monday.
End Citizens United, an organization that looks to reduce the role of large campaign donations in politics, rescinded its endorsement of Platner and called on him to end his campaign.
Judge orders E. Jean Carroll be paid $5M after jury found Trump sexually abused and defamed her
NEW YORK — E. Jean Carroll can be paid the $5.8 million that was set aside after a jury found three years ago that President Trump sexually abused her in 1996 before he became president and defamed her after she publicly revealed the attack, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan issued an order that says the money can be paid to Carroll, along with interest that has grown since the verdict.
Carroll’s lawyers had requested the disbursement after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the 2023 civil verdict.
Trump had resumed defamatory attacks against Carroll as his lawyers considered asking the high court to reconsider its decision.
Both sides’ attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The jury reached its verdict in a trial that Trump did not attend after Carroll testified that she was sexually abused by him in the dressing room of a Manhattan luxury department store after a flirtatious and friendly chance encounter between them turned violent.
Carroll, 82, first talked about the attack publicly in 2019 in a memoir while Trump was president. He repeatedly insisted that he never knew Carroll. He also accused her of trying to sell books at his expense and having political motives.
Trump is also appealing $83 million in defamation compensation granted to Carroll by a separate Manhattan jury after a January 2024 trial at which Trump briefly testified.
At that trial, Kaplan required the jury to accept the findings of the previous jury and only determine how much money, if any, Trump owed Carroll for comments he made about her as president.
Sisak and Neumeister write for the Associated Press.
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Maine woman alleges that Senate candidate Platner sexually assaulted her
July 6 (UPI) — A woman who once dated Senate candidate Graham Platner says that he forced her to have sex with him about five years ago.
Jenny Racicot, 41, said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner for more than two years, Politico reported. She said he was intoxicated when he entered her home in Maine one night in 2021 and assaulted her while she told him repeatedly to stop.
“I remember him grabbing my pelvis and being really forceful of me,” she told Politico. “I remember the specific moment where I thought to myself, like, ‘This is no longer my choice.’ “
Platner, a Democrat, denied the accusations Tuesday, saying any claim of non-consensual behavior is “categorically untrue” and that the allegations are “troubling, serious and false.”
He said, however, that he is “mindful of the political reality (the allegation) will inflect” and that he is taking “time to reflect on the best path forward.”
He is the Democratic nominee running against Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. The party has until July 13 to replace him with another candidate if he withdraws, The New York Times reported.
Racicot previously told The Times that Platner came to her house in 2021 while drunk and said his behavior was “reckless” and “unsettling.” She did not elaborate at that time. Politico published the new interview Monday.
The Platner campaign also issued a statement saying that the candidate “vigorously denies” the allegations, which it called “coached and coordinated by out-of-state establishment operatives.”
“For a year, opponents of this campaign have thrown everything they can at Graham —calling him a Nazi, a war criminal, a communist,” the campaign statement said. “None of it has been true, and this is no different.”
Politico said it interviewed Racicot three times over the past two weeks, interviewed another person she confided in and reviewed documents including emails between Racicot and her therapist and messages between Racicot and an acquaintance she warned about Platner.
Collins said in a statement that the “allegations are appalling,” The Times reported.
Other Democratic candidates and politicians, including Rep. RoKhanna, D-Calif., a supporter of Platner’s, called on him to drop out of the race Monday.
End Citizens United, an organization that looks to reduce the role of large campaign donations in politics, rescinded its endorsement of Platner and called on him to end his campaign.
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