Can Teflon Don Deflect Sexual Assault Allegations That Have Resurfaced Ahead of Super Tuesday?
Allegations of sexual assault against Donald Trump have resurfaced as the Republican prepares to face a series of primaries on March 1, otherwise known as Super Tuesday.
The Guardian reported that a woman, who The Independent has chosen not to name, is sticking by her allegations that the presidential hopeful forced the woman, whose boyfriend had just struck a business deal with him, into a hotel room and touched her intimately without consent.
She also alleges that he “groped” her on several occasions and engaged in “hostile and offensive sexual behavior” towards her between 1992 and 1997.
The woman alleged that the incident had left her “emotionally devastated and distraught.” She dropped the $125 million lawsuit one month after filing it.
The case coincided with another legal dispute against Mr. Trump, lodged by her former boyfriend over an alleged breach of contract relating to their beauty pageant business venture.
Mr. Trump denied the allegations and claimed at the time that the lawsuit alleging sexual assault was intended to make him settle the business dispute, which he reportedly did later that year for a six-figure sum.
The Mail Online reported earlier this week that Mr. Trump’s counsel Michael Cohen said there was no truth behind the assault allegations. However, The Guardian texted the woman, who is now an established make up artist in New York, to ask whether she is sticking by her claims. The woman allegedly responded “Yes.”
Mr.Cohen and Mr. Trump’s spokeswoman did not respond to The Guardian for comment.
The woman told Lawnewz.com this week that she was “under pressure” to file the lawsuit and that “The allegations were twisted and embellished. Everything could be looked at in different way.”
“I saw him [Donald] recently, and he said I looked good,” the woman said. “I have nothing but good things to say about Donald,” she added. She is also said to have told the website that she would be voting for Mr. Trump.
However, in her 1997 lawsuit the woman alleged that the real estate mogul first attempted to touch her “intimate private parts” during a dinner meeting and he introduced her to his colleagues as his “girlfriend.”
She alleged that harassment continued after the woman became a partner in the beauty pageant venture called American Dream Festival. It was led by her former boyfriend, who she married in 1995, but is not with him now.
The woman also made claims that Mr. Trump made a series of disparaging comments about women in general, including comments towards a 17-year-old Czech beauty pageant contestant, like “sex object” and “great piece of ass.”
The New York Daily News reported that after the business dispute settled, the woman and her former husband later attended Mr. Trump’s party in Florida to “celebrate” his separation from his wife Marla Maples.