The New York Times is out with a bombshell report on two women who say Donald Trump groped them.
Jessica Leeds and Rachel Crooks spoke to the Times on the record about their encounters with the reality TV star. Both had told close friends of being assaulted by Trump, but neither had gone public with their story until Wednesday.
Leeds, now 74, said she was seated next to Trump on an airplane three decades ago when the businessman grabbed her breasts and attempted to reach up her skirt.
“He was like an octopus,” she told the Times. “His hands were everywhere.”
Crooks, who was working as a receptionist for a firm located in Trump Tower in 2005, said she met Trump outside an elevator in the building. According to Crooks, Trump shook her hand and would not let go, and then started kissing her on the mouth.
Read the full New York Times story here.
Trump’s senior communications adviser, Jason Miller, called the Times article “fiction” and appeared to accuse the newspaper of plotting on behalf of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
“For the New York Times to launch a completely false, coordinated character assassination against Mr. Trump on a topic like this is dangerous,” Miller said in a statement. He added: ”It is absurd to think that one of the most recognizable business leaders on the planet with a strong record of empowering women in his companies would do the things alleged in this story, and for this to only become public decades later in the final month of a campaign for president should say it all.”
Trump himself vehemently denied the allegations in an interview with the Times. He threatened to sue the paper if it published the story and called a Times reporter a “disgusting human being.”
“I don’t do it. I don’t do it,” he told the paper of his remarks about groping women on a 2005 recording that was released Friday. “It was locker room talk.”
The Washington Post on Friday published the 2005 recording in which Trump boasted of kissing women without their consent and grabbing them “by the pussy.” The recording upended the presidential campaign and many people, including Vice President Joe Biden, pointed out that Trump’s brag constituted sexual assault.
Asked about the tape during Sunday’s debate with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Trump denied sexually abusing anyone.
“Women have respect for me, and I will tell you: No, I have not,” Trump replied when asked by moderator Anderson Cooper if he had actually done the things he talked about in the recording.
Trump has been repeatedly accused of groping women, with allegations dating back decades. Temple Taggart, a contestant in a Trump-owned beauty pageant, said earlier this year he kissed her on the mouth without her consent in 1997. CNN’s Erin Burnett recounted a similar story last week about a friend who said Trump tried to kiss her during a meeting in 2010.
“Trump took Tic Tacs, suggested I take them also,” Burnett said her friend told her. “He then leaned in, catching me off guard, and kissed me almost on lips. I was really freaked out.”
And Jill Harth, a former model, said Trump groped her under a table and attempted to force himself on her at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump has denied these allegations.
Read more: Trump Denied Ever Sexually Abusing Anyone. But Plenty Of Women Say Otherwise.
