on aimz you don t see it. reporter: a access hollywood tape focused showing trump bragging about sexually assaulting women. and when you re a star, they let you do it. you can do anything. grab them by the pussy. do anything. reporter: at least 15 women have accused trump of sexual assault, harassment or lewd behavior. all from before he was president. trump denied all of their claims. at the time, carroll says she didn t feel compelled to share her story. there were, you know, an army of women. they were coming forward. so i sat back and let them also, i thought it was my fault. and when if i was going to come forward, i would have to say i was stupid, i was a nitwit, i allowed this. so my frame of mind was not the best. reporter: now carroll says she shared her account of what happened soon after it allegedly occurred roughly 20 years ago, and cnn spoke to the two friends she said she told about the allegations. both of them confirmed that carroll shared this versio
and i don t know anything about her. reporter: yet a photo shows them chatting at a party in the 1980s. there is some picture where we are shaking hands it looks like at some kind of event. reporter: while trump dismissed the account as a publicity stunt, today she suggested it wasn t an attempt to sell books. on amazon you don t see it. during the presidential campaign, an access hollywood tape from 2005 surfaced showing trump bragging about sexual assaulting women. and when you re a star, they let you do it. you can do anything. grab them by the p, you can do anything. reporter: he s been charged from sexual assault and more. he s denied all of their claims. now, carol said she told two friends about the alleged attack some 20 years ago.
that s what it was. and so when you heard donald trump in the infamous access hollywood tape foreshadow this or at least explain himself to billy bush. let s remind people. listen to this. i got to use some tic tacs just in case i kiss them. i just i m attracted and start kissing. when you re a star, you can do anything you want. grab them by the pussy. anything. what did you think when you heard that? it knocked me back. i felt relief and that s right. that s right. you felt relief that that was confirmation, basically, you felt. so as you know, since you came
substantiate them unless you listen to miss carroll s story as it played, it s very difficult to imagine this did not happen to her. the third reason, we have all known, the public has known for some amount of years, the way in which president trump has talked about women, has boasted about his treatment of women, his mistreatment of women. and so i think that really contributes here to the sort of subdued reaction. a lot of this does not seem new to people, and that in and of itself is shocking. part of why her story is quite plausible is because there s this record of 15 other women describing a similar m.o. that s part of why it feels familiar to hear this again. and because president trump himself in that access hollywood interview that everybody listened to described his m.o. and i ll just remind people and read it, when you re a star, they let you do it. you can do anything. it s like a magnet.
despite trump s statement, carroll posted a picture showing her chatting with trump during a holiday party in the 1980s. new york magazine said they reached out to carroll s two friends who collaborated when she did disclose about that attack at the time. trump says the story is made up and, quote, should be sold in the fiction section. he was taped during a 2005 access hollywood interview saying he liked to grab women by their private parts adding, when you re a star, they let you do it. cnn has reached out to carroll but she has yet to respond. jason carroll, cnn, new york. jason carroll there for us. as he mentioned, we have reached out to e.g. carroll, but she s yet to get back to us. in the meantime, laura coats spoke to genevieve smith. that s the director who worked on the piece and she said she wanted to take this story seriously. did you ever any hesitation about publishing this account by e. jean carroll?