The Full List Of 25 Women Accusing Donald Trump Of Sexual Assault — And The Details Of Each Claim
They will not be forgotten.
CNN Ever since Harvey Weinstein was fired for sexual assault, men and women alike have been speaking up about their alleged assaults hoping something will be done about their cases — and many people have been fired for sexual assault.
In early December 2017, two senators called for Trump to resign over the growing sexual assault allegations against him. Matt Lauer was kicked off of the Today show. Kevin Spacey was fired from House of Cards. Dr. Larry Nassar, who treated hundreds of Olympians, is in jail.
The list of punishment goes on, but Trump isn't included. He’s still in the White House despite being accused of sexual assault and/or misconduct by at least 25 different women.
In 2017, when these allegations first came out, three women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct appeared on Today and spoke with Megyn Kelly:
The allegations seem to have no impact on Mr. President, though democratic senators Cory Booker and Jeff Merkley have called for Trump’s resignation.
"I want to be absolutely clear. Donald Trump should resign the presidency,” said Sen. Merkley in an email. "At least 17 women have accused Donald Trump of horrific sexual misconduct, and I believe them. Moreover, he's bragged on tape about that behavior. This is not about politics. This is not about policy. I disagree with him on many things, but this is not about that."
The number of women claiming Trump abused them is large, but the White House has denied every allegation, and have essentially called all these women liars. Yes, even after the infamous Hollywood Access video was made public.
“Is the official White House position that all of these women are lying?” a CBS news reporter asked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in October 2017.
“Yeah, we’ve been clear on that from the beginning, and the president’s spoken on it,” Sanders replied.
That December, some of the women who have accused Trump appeared at a press conference.
But since then, there have been new accusations and legal roadbumps in holding Trump accountable. Let’s take some time to recall all of the women who have accused Trump of sexual assault and their stories.
1. Jessica Leeds (1980s)
Photo: Twitter
Leeds said that Trump allegedly touched her while sitting next to her on a flight to New York. She claims he grabbed her breasts and tried to reach up her skirt. Leeds felt assaulted and quickly moved to the back of the plane away from Trump.
“He was an octopus. His hands were everywhere,” she said. After the incident, she ran into Trump at a gala where he called her the C word. "He called me the worst name ever. It was shocking. It was like a bucket of cold water being thrown over me," she recalled.
Trump denied this event and told the New York Times, “None of this ever happened.” He also addressed the allegations at a rally, insinuating Leeds wasn't attractive enough for him to assault. "People that are willing to say, 'Oh, I was with Donald Trump in 1980, I was sitting with him on an airplane, and he went after me.' Believe me, she would not be my first choice," he said.
2. Ivana Trump (1989)
Photo: Getty
Trump’s ex-wife Ivana claimed the president raped her during their marriage. The story first came out in a book published by Harry Hurt III titled Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump. An excerpt said, "Then he jams his penis inside her for the first time in more than 16 months. Ivana is terrified... It is a violent assault."
She claimed he had a painful scalp surgery and lashed out at her afterwards, ripping out her hair and tearing her clothes. According to the book, Ivana locked herself in her room and cried.
“[O]n one occasion during 1989, Mr. Trump and I had marital relations in which he behaved very differently toward me than he had during our marriage. As a woman, I felt violated, as the love and tenderness, which he normally exhibited towards me, was absent. I referred to this as a ‘rape,’ but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense,” she said.
Trump’s legal counsel at the time, Michael Cohen, told The Daily Beast that Trump “never raped anybody.” During the same interview, Cohen also incorrectly said that you cannot rape a spouse.
3. Jill Harth (1992-1993)
Photo: Guardian
Harth met Trump in 1992 to recruit him for a festival. She says he immediately began making sexual advances on her.
She claims Trump groped her under the table at dinner with beauty pageant contestants. Later, in 1993, Trump wanted to see the women he was sponsoring. Harth visited his mansion to finalize a deal, and he made another unwanted advance in one of the children’s bedrooms.
“He pushed me up against the wall, and had his hands all over me and tried to get up my dress again,” Harth said. “And I had to physically say: ‘What are you doing? Stop it.’ It was a shocking thing to have him do this because he knew I was with George, he knew they were in the next room. And how could he be doing this when I’m there for business?”
She later filed a lawsuit against Trump in 1997. Trump denied these claims as well. “It is disheartening that one has to dignify a response to the below absurd query,” said Cohen. “Mr. Trump denies each and every statement made by Ms. Harth as these 24-year-old allegations lack any merit or veracity.”
4. Kristin Anderson (early 1990s)
Photo: ABC News
Anderson told her story in 2016 during Trump’s presidential campaign. She alleges that in the early 1990s Trump reached up her skirt and felt her vagina through her underwear while at a nightspot in Manhattan. She didn't realize it was Trump until she pushed his hand away and got a look at his face, saying “nobody else has those eyebrows.”
Trump claimed the accusation was false. “Mr. Trump strongly denies this phony allegation by someone looking to get some free publicity. It is totally ridiculous,” former Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said in an email.
5. Lisa Boyne (1996)
Photo: Twitter
Boyne said she was invited to dinner with Trump by her friend Sonja Morgan and that the two picked her up in a limo. During the drive, Trump allegedly spoke of his sexual conquests and who he planned on sleeping with next.
While at dinner at a restaurant, Boyne claims Trump wouldn't let any of the women get out of their seats unless they walked across the table. As they did so, she said Trump would look up the ladies’ skirts, comment on their underwear and genitalia.
He “stuck his head right underneath their skirts,” according to Boyne. “It was the most offensive scene I’ve ever been a part of,” Boyne told the Huffington Post.
Trump denied this claim. “Mr. Trump never heard of this woman and would never do that,” Hope Hicks said.
6. Mariah Billado (1997)
Photo: YouTube
Billado competed in the 1997 Miss Teen USA beauty pageant and told BuzzFeed that Trump walked in on her and four other women while they were getting dressed.
According to Billado, he said something along the lines of, “Don’t worry, ladies, I’ve seen it all before.” She viewed his actions as more of a “pompous ‘I own this place’ rather than a perverted thing,” but she continued to say she wouldn't let her daughter compete in a pageant owned by Trump.
Trump denied the claim, and his campaign released a statement on the accusation: “These accusations have no merit and have already been disproven by many other individuals who were present.”
Despite his denial, he once admitted to Howard Stern in 2005 that he would go into contestant's dressing rooms: "I'll go backstage before a show and everyone's getting dressed and ready and everything else. And you know, no men are anywhere. And I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant. You know, they're standing there with no clothes. And you see these incredible-looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that."
7. Cathy Heller (1997)
Photo: People
Heller told the Guardian in 2016 that Trump kissed her while at a Mother’s Day brunch in Mar-a-Lago. “He took my hand, and grabbed me, and went for the lips,” she claimed. Then, she leaned backward and turned her head in an attempt to avoid him. “He kept me there for a little too long,” she added. “And then he just walked away.”
She said Trump allegedly was “pissed” and that he seemed to feel he was “entitled” to kiss her. But Trump denied this.
“There is no way that something like this would have happened in a public place on Mother’s Day at Mr. Trump’s resort,” Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller told The Guardian. “It would have been the talk of Palm Beach for the past two decades.”
8. Temple Taggart (1997)
Photo: NBC
Taggart met Trump while representing Utah in the Miss USA pageant in 1997. She claims that when she was first introduced to him, he “kissed me directly on the lips.” When she met him at the Trump Tower in Manhattan during a meeting, he allegedly kissed her on the mouth once again.
Trump denied Taggart’s claims. He told NBC News, “I don’t even know who she is. She claims this took place in a public area. I never kissed her. I emphatically deny this ridiculous claim.”
9. Karena Virginia (1998)
Photo: Getty
Virginia alleged that Trump grabbed her breast while at a U.S. Open tennis tournament, according to the Washington Post. She said that he started off by remarking on her appearance. Virginia claims Trump wrapped his arm around her and groped her breast while asking, “So, you know who I am?”
Charles Virginia, her husband and a New York lawyer, said that she told him about the incident when they met. She told him “that she had been touched inappropriately and that she had been cowed by it.”
Trump campaign spokesperson Jessica Ditto denied Virginia’s claim, saying, “Give me a break. Voters are tired of these circus-like antics and reject these fictional stories and the clear efforts to benefit Hillary Clinton.”
10. Bridget Sullivan (2000)
Photo: Getty
Sullivan represented New Hampshire in the Miss Teen USA pageant in 2000. She said Trump was a bit creepy and that “he’d hug you just a little low on your back,” and give you “a squeeze that your creepy uncle would.”
Sullivan also claims Trump would walk in the dressing rooms while the girls were changing. “The time that he walked through the dressing rooms was really shocking. We were all naked,” Sullivan told Buzzfeed.
Hicks, Trump’s spokesperson, said this, along with other accusations against him, was fabricated. A statement read: "These accusations have no merit and have already been disproven by many other individuals who were present. When you see questionable attacks like this magically put out there in the final month of a presidential campaign, you have to ask yourself what the political motivations are and why the media is pushing it."
11. Tasha Dixon (2001)
Photo: TashaDixon.com
Dixon was 18 while she was competing in the 2001 Miss USA pageant representing Arizona. She told CBS News that Trump would walk into the dressing rooms while the women were changing.
“He just came strolling right in,” Dixon claimed. “There was no second to put a robe on or any sort of clothing or anything. Some girls were topless. Other girls were naked.” Dixon continued, saying there was nobody to complain to about Trump’s behavior because he owned the pageant.
"To have the owner come waltzing in when we're naked or half naked in a very physically vulnerable position, and then to have the pressure of the people that work for him telling us to go fawn all over him, go walk up to him, talk to him," she added
Trump’s campaign denied Dixon’s allegation, along with those of other pageant contestants.
12. Melinda McGillivray (2003)
Photo: WPTV
McGillivray alleged Trump groped her while meeting Ray Charles after a performance. She told the Palm Beach Post that she never reported the incident in Mar-a-Lago but that she vividly remembers it.
Her friend, Ken Davidoff, remembers McGillivray exclaiming, “Donald just grabbed my ass!” According to McGillivray, “All of a sudden I felt a grab, a little nudge. I think it’s Ken’s camera bag, that was my first instinct. I turn around and there’s Donald. He sort of looked away quickly.”
While appearing on Megyn Kelly Today, she said, "He has to face the music; he can't get away with this. I want justice."
The Palm Beach Post said it reached out to Trump for comment but didn't mention any response. Trump denied all of the allegations against him, though, in a vague statement during his campaign.
13. Rachel Crooks (2005)
Photo: CNN
Crooks worked in the Trump Tower in Manhattan at the time. She ran into Trump in an elevator and introduced herself, shaking his hand. Crooks claims he wouldn't let go of her hand and kissed her “directly on the lips.”
“It was so inappropriate,” Leeds said in an interview. “I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that.” In a December 2017 interview on Megyn Kelly Today, she added, "I was shocked, devastated. I remember hiding in our boss' office because no one else was there, it was early in the morning, and I called my sister... I felt horrible."
Trump denied this accusation, too. He told the Times, “None of this ever took place.” He then threatened to sue the Times if they continued reporting on Crooks' allegations.
14. Natasha Stoynoff (2005)
Photo: GoodReads
Stoynoff, a writer for People, met with Trump to interview him and his wife for their one-year anniversary, and was forcibly kissed by him before Melania arrived at Mar-a-Lago. She claims Trump was giving her a tour of the mansion, and he mentioned there was a room she just had to see.
“We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us,” Stoynoff said. “I turned around, and within seconds he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat.”
She said he didn't let up until his butler informed him that Melania was arriving. Trump later said to her, “You know we’re going to have an affair, don’t you?”
Trump denied these accusations on Twitter.
The butler also denied the incident occurred, saying, “No, that never happened. Come on, that’s just bull crap.”
15. Ninni Laaksonen (2006)
Photo: WireImages
Laaksonen told Finnish newspaper Ilta-Sanomat that Trump had grabbed her butt while they were backstage during the Late Show with David Letterman.
The Telegraph translated the article: “Trump stood right next to me and suddenly he squeezed my butt,” said Laaksonen. “He really grabbed my butt. I don’t think anybody saw it but I flinched and thought: ‘What is happening?’”
Though neither publication mentioned a denial from Trump, he made a statement denying all claims of sexual misconduct against him.
16. Jessica Drake (2006)
Photo: Getty
Drake met Trump at a charity golf tournament back in 2006. She recalled him kissing her without their consent. "He grabbed each of us tightly, in a hug and kissed each one of us without asking permission," she told CNN.
Drake also said he flirted with her, and she got a call from one of Trump’s reps asking if she wanted to come to Trump’s room alone. When she declined, Trump got on the other end of the call and invited her to a party. He kept trying to get her to meet him but she insistently declined each time.
In October 2016, shortly before the election, Drake, said, "This is not acceptable behavior for anyone, much less a presidential candidate. I understand that I may be called a liar or an opportunist, but I will risk that in order to stand in solidarity with women who share similar accounts that span many, many years."
Trump denied the events, discounting the allegations because Drake is an adult film actress. On WGIR radio, Trump responded to the claims, saying, "One said, 'He grabbed me on the arm.' And she's a porn star. You know, this one that came out recently, 'He grabbed me and he grabbed me on the arm.' Oh, I'm sure she's never been grabbed before."
17. Samantha Holvey (2006)
Photo: Getty
Holvey, a Miss USA contestant at the time, claimed Trump inspected each pageant contestant in New York City.
"He would step in front of each girl and look you over from head to toe like we were just meat, we were just sexual objects, that we were not people," Holvey told CNN. "You know when a gross guy at the bar is checking you out? It's that feeling."
CNN left messages with the Trump campaign but said they were not returned, though Trump denied allegations by pageant contestants in a vague statement. Holvey is one of the women who called for a congressional investigation into the sexual misconduct.
18. Summer Zervos (2007)
Photo: Getty
Zervos met Trump to talk about business opportunities in 2007, but he kissed her on the mouth as a greeting. According to The Guardian, she also claims Trump groped her. Zervos alleges that Trump greeted her with an “open-mouthed, aggressive kiss while grabbing her shoulder, and put his hand on her breast. Several times.” She then pushed his hand away in an effort to stop the inappropriate contact.
Trump claimed this never happened. “I vaguely remember Ms. Zervos as one of the many contestants on The Apprentice over the years,” he said in a statement. “To be clear, I never met her at a hotel or greeted her inappropriately a decade ago. That is not who I am as a person, and it is not how I’ve conducted my life.”
Zervos filed a lawsuit against Trump, suing him for defamation after calling her a liar. She's now introducing new evidence against Trump, including emails, calendar entries, and a polygraph test. A court order set a deadline for December 6 for Trump to “undergo a deposition, a legal term for sworn questioning conducted out of court.” His lawyers attempted to dismiss or delay the case, but they lost an appellate ruling in March.
19. Cassandra Searles (2013)
Photo: WireImage
Searles, another pageant contestant, met Trump while representing Washington for the 2013 Miss USA pageant.
She called him out in a Facebook post that said, “Miss USA Class of 2013: Do y’all remember that one time we had to do our on stage introductions, but this one guy treated us like cattle and made us do it again because we didn't look him in the eyes? Do you also remember when he then proceeded to have us lined up so he could get a closer look at his property? Oh I forgot to mention that guy will be in the running to become the next President of the United States. I love the idea of having a misogynist as the President... #HeWillProbablySueMe #iHaveWorseStoriesSoComeAtMeBro #Drumpf.”
Searles later added to her post, claiming Trump groped her and tried to get her to come to his room. “He probably doesn't want me telling the story about that time he continually grabbed my ass and invited me to his hotel room,” she said.
Trump did not specifically deny the accusation made by Searles, but did deny that he ever sexually assaulted anyone during his campaign.
20. Victoria Hughes (1997)
Photo: YouTube
Victoria Hughes, former Miss New Mexico, said Trump first introduced himself to the teenage contestants when he unexpectedly walked into their dressing room. She's one of five former pageant contestants who have come forward with allegations.
“It was certainly the most inappropriate time to meet us all for the first time. The youngest girl was 15, and I was the eldest at 19," she told BuzzFeed. "I recall chaperones saying that we had a visitor and to get covered up. The black curtains opened and in walks Mr. Trump smiling. He wished us all good luck, did not stay very long and left. As teenagers, it no doubt caught us off guard, as the timing of the entrance could've been better and less awkward for us all.”
Trump spoke of going in unannounced to pageant dressing rooms back in 2005, when he appeared on Howard Stern's show.
21. Jennifer Murphy (2005)
Photo: YouTube
Murphy was a former contestant on The Apprentice and competed in Miss USA. In December 2016, she revealed to Grazia magazine that Trump kissed her after a job interview at Trump Tower. She told the publication:
"He walked me to the elevator, and I said goodbye. I was thinking, ‘oh, he’s going to hug me’, but when he pulled my face in and gave me a smooch. I was like 'okay.' I didn’t know how to act. I was just a little taken aback and probably turned red. And I then I get into the elevator and thought, 'huh, Donald Trump just kissed me on the lips."
When she didn't win the 2004 Miss USA pageant, Trump gave her his business card and invited her onto his show. She auditioned for The Apprentice and as Murphy recalled, "That’s when he said 'Jennifer, you’re just so beautiful' and that made me turn red. It made me feel special, that Donald Trump saw things in me."
After being fired from The Apprentice, Trump still wanted to offer her a job. Murphy says, "I think maybe in his mind he may have thought of me and maybe fantasized, or romantically, but I didn’t feel at the end of the day he would take action. I would hope that he would be true to his marriage, and I was also engaged at the time."
Although Murphy said she was "very taken aback at the time," she also said she "wasn't offended" by the kiss. She voted for him for president, and even created a Katy Perry parody video in which she sang, "I was kissed by Trump and I liked it."
She continued, "I ended up declining his job offers, which I think took him aback. I don’t think he was used to being turned down. He wants to have what he wants to have, but that is probably a common trait in someone that can lead big companies and can even be the president. They’re going to go for what they want and if they don’t get it, they want it that much more."
22. Juliet Huddy (2005 or 2006)
Photo: Getty
Huddy appeared on the Mornin!!! With Bill Schulz podcast in December 2017. Huddy, a former Fox News anchor, also claims Trump kissed her without consent while meeting him in Trump Tower, either in 2005 or 2006.
"He went to say goodbye and he, rather than kiss me on the cheek, he leaned in on the lips," she said. However, Huddy said she "didn't feel threatened" or "offended" at the time. But now? "Now I have matured I think I would say, 'Whoa, no.' But at the time I was younger and I was a little shocked. I thought maybe he didn't mean to do it, but I was kind of making excuses," she revealed on the podcast.
The White House denied her accusations, according to the New York Daily News.
23. Alva Johnson (2016)
Photo: Erica Aitken Photography
The former Trump campaign staff says she was also kissed by Trump without her consent. The assault occurred in August 2016, at a rally in Tampa, Florida.
In an interview with the Washington Post, she recalled that Trump grabbed her hand and kissed her on the side of her mouth. "Oh, my God, I think he's going to kiss me. He's coming straight for my lips. So I turn my head, and he kisses me right on corner of my mouth, still holding my hand the entire time. Then he walks on out," she said.
Johnson filed a federal lawsuit against Trump in February, but has since dropped the suit. She still maintains her story.
but Sanders denied the claims, saying, "This accusation is absurd on its face. This never happened and is directly contradicted by multiple highly credible eye witness accounts."
Despite denial, a video surfaced of the encounter. But a judge dismissed her case against Trump, claiming it's a political dispute.
24. E. Jean Carroll (mid-1990s)
Photo: AP
Carroll is a former advice columnist for Elle, and alleges that Trump sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room. In an excerpt from her book, What Do We Need Men For?, she recounted the assault:
"The moment the dressing-room door is closed, he lunges at me, pushes me against the wall, hitting my head quite badly, and puts his mouth against my lips. The next moment, still wearing correct business attire, shirt, tie, suit jacket, overcoat, he opens the overcoat, unzips his pants, and, forcing his fingers around my private area, thrusts his penis halfway — or completely, I'm not certain — inside me. It turns into a colossal struggle.
I try to stomp his foot. I try to push him off with my one free hand — for some reason, I keep holding my purse with the other — and I finally get a knee up high enough to push him out and off and I turn, open the door, and run out of the dressing room."
The White House responded to her claims in June 2019, saying, "This is a completely false and unrealistic story surfacing 25 years after allegedly taking place and was created simply to make the President look bad."
Though Carroll told two friends about the assault, she didn't initially come forward because of fear:
"Receiving death threats, being driven from my home, being dismissed, being dragged through the mud, and joining the 15 women who've come forward with credible stories about how the man grabbed, badgered, belittled, mauled, molested, and assaulted them, only to see the man turn it around, deny, threaten, and attack them, never sounded like much fun. Also, I am a coward."
25. Karen Johnson (early 2000s)
Johnson claims Trump assaulted her at his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort in the 2000s during a New Year's Eve party. According to her, he pulled her behind a tapestry, then kissed and groped her.
A full account of the assault was documented in Barry Levine and Monique El-Faizy's book, All the President's Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator. Johnson said, "I'm a tall girl and I had six-inch heels on, and I still remember looking up at him. And he's strong, and he just kissed me. I was so scared because of who he was... I don't even know where it came from. I didn't have a say in the matter."
He then grabbed her genitals. A book excerpt read, "When he says that thing, 'Grab them in the p****,' that hits me hard because when he grabbed me and pulled me into the tapestry, that's where he grabbed me."
After the assault, Trump called her repeatedly and stalked her, offering to fly her to New York and insinuating they were having a consensual affair.
Stephanie Grisham, White House press secretary, responded to the claims and spoke out against the book. A statement said, "That book is trash and those accusations from 20 years ago have been addressed many times."
Sarah Gangraw is a travel-addicted cat lady who lives on black coffee and cheese. She writes about all things news, entertainment and crime. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter.
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