Getty President Donald Trump returns to the White House in Marine One on December 10, 2017 in Washington, DC.
At least 16 women have accused President Donald Trump of sexual misconduct, including sexual harassment and assault. More than a year after many of the women came forward, and as Trump approaches a year in office, several of the women are speaking out again.
The women are seeking to draw attention to their allegations amid the #MeToo movement, which has led to the firing and resignations of several powerful politicians, journalists and celebrities.
The accusers are uniting for the first time and held a press conference Monday, to “share their firsthand accounts of President Trump groping, fondling, forcibly kissing, humiliating and harassing women.” They called for “accountability and an investigation of sexual misconduct by the president,” according to a press release.
At least three of the accusers, Jessica Leeds, Rachel Crooks and Samantha Holvey, appeared on TV for the first time to discuss their stories. The trio appeared on Megyn Kelly’s NBC show Monday morning and later at a press conference being held by Brave New Films, which recently released a short documentary, “The 16 Women and Trump.”
Trump has denied all the accusations and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders recently declared the issue over when asked about it at a press briefing following the resignation of Senator Al Franken.
“The President addressed (the allegations) during the campaign,” Sanders said. “We feel strongly the people of this country addressed it when they elected Donald Trump as president.”
During his resignation speech, Franken said it is “ironic” that he is stepping down, “while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office.”
In October, at another briefing, Sanders was asked if the women are “lying,” and she responded, ” “Yeah, we’ve been clear on that from the beginning, and the president’s spoken on it.”
Trump was also asked about the accusations in October, telling reporters in the Rose Garden, “All I can say is it’s totally fake news. It’s just fake. It’s fake. It’s made-up stuff, and it’s disgraceful, what happens, but that happens in the world of politics.”
“As a society, we are finally beginning to hold powerful men to account for abusing their positions and influence to harass and abuse women. But this movement for accountability will ring hollow if it doesn’t apply to the most powerful, and public, sexual harasser in America—the president,” filmmaker Robert Greenwald said in a statement. “In the post-Harvey Weinstein (or Roy Moore, Louis C.K., etc.) world we live in, we cannot ignore 16 women who over the course of decades in a broad range of situations encountered the same pattern of manipulation, misogyny, harassment and abuse. We owe it to these women, and to all women, to hold President Trump to account.”
Here are the names, stories and photos of the 16 of the women who have accused President Donald Trump of sexual misconduct:
1. Jessica Leeds
Jessica Leeds in 1978.
Jessica Leeds, 74, said she was groped by Trump on an airplane more than 30 years ago, the New York Times reports.
Leeds, who said she is a Clinton supporter, told the Times she was asked by a flight attendant if she wanted to move up to first class, where she was then seated next to Trump.
She said after introducing himself to her, “he was like an octopus. His hands were everywhere.” She said he grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt. Leeds said it was “an assault.” Trump’s campaign said the incident did not occur.
Read more about Jessica Leeds here:
2. Rachel Crooks
Rachel Crooks.
Rachel Crooks said her encounter with Trump occurred in 2005 while she was a 22-year-old receptionist at Bayrock Group, a real estate firm based in Trump Tower, according to the New York Times.
She was waiting outside an elevator when she saw Trump and introduced herself. She said they shook hands, but Trump wouldn’t let go and instead kissed her on the cheeks and then Crooks said he “kissed me directly on the mouth.”
Crooks said she felt violated.
“It was so inappropriate,” Crooks told the Times “I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that.”
Trump’s campaign has said the incident did not occur. Crooks told the Times she is a supporter of Hillary Clinton.
Read more about Rachel Crooks here:
3. Samantha Holvey
Samantha Holvey, former Miss USA North Carolina, told CNN that Trump inspected each women before a pageant he ran in 2006. She said it was the “dirtiest” she’s felt in her “entire life,” according to CNN.
“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 said in an October 2016 interview. “You know when a gross guy at the bar is checking you out? It’s that feeling.”
Holvey said he was walking around looking at the contestants as they were getting ready.
“I thought it was entirely inappropriate,” Holvey told CNN. “I told my mom about it. I was disgusted by the entire thing. I had no desire to win when I understood what it was all about.”
4. Mindy McGillivray
Melinda “Mindy” McGillivray spoke out about her experience with Trump in the Palm Beach Post.
The 36-year-old Florida woman said she was groped by Trump in 2003 at his Mar-A-Lago resort. She was working with a photographer during a Ray Charles concert at the resort.She said they were backstage when she saw Trump and his wife, Melania.
“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. I quickly turned back, facing Ray Charles, and I’m stunned,” she said. “This was a pretty good nudge. More of a grab. It was pretty close to the center of my butt. I was startled. I jumped.”
She said she chose not to make a scene. Her allegations were backed up by photographer Ken Davidoff, who said he remembers her pulling him aside shortly after the incident and saying, “‘Donald just grabbed my ass!'”
She told the Palm Beach Post she came forward despite incidents in her past that could be used against her, including a 2012 conviction for DUI and a burglary arrest when she was 17. But she still came forward, “to set a good example for my daughter. It’s a respect issue for all women. If something like this happens to you, you should speak up.”
Read more about Mindy McGillivray here:
5. Natasha Stoynoff
Natasha Stoynoff.
Natasha Stoynoff, a journalist and author, wrote about her experience with Donald Trump in People in a story called, “Physically Attacked by Donald Trump – A PEOPLE Writer’s Own Harrowing Story.”
Stoynoff said the incident occurred in December 2005 at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago home in Florida, where she went to interview his wife, Melania:
Our photo team shot the Trumps on the lush grounds of their Florida estate, and I interviewed them about how happy their first year of marriage had been. When we took a break for the then very-pregnant Melania to go upstairs and change wardrobe for more photos, Donald wanted to show me around the mansion. There was one “tremendous” room in particular, he said, that I just had to see. We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us. I turned around, and within seconds, he was pushing me against the wall, and forcing his tongue down my throat. Now, I’m a tall, strapping girl who grew up wrestling two giant brothers. I even once sparred with Mike Tyson. It takes a lot to push me. But Trump is much bigger—a looming figure—and he was fast, taking me by surprise, and throwing me off balance. I was stunned. And I was grateful when Trump’s longtime butler burst into the room a minute later, as I tried to unpin myself. The butler informed us that Melania would be down momentarily, and it was time to resume the interview.
She said Trump told her, “You know we’re going to have an affair, don’t you?” and referenced an interview his ex-wife Marla Maples had done in which she said sex with him was the “best” she’d had.
“I’m not sure what locker room talk consists of these days. I only know that I wasn’t in a locker room when he pushed me against a wall. I was in his home, as a professional, and his beautiful pregnant wife was just upstairs,” she wrote. “Talk is talk. But it wasn’t just talk in my case, it was very much action. And, just for the record, Mr. Trump, I did not consent.”
A Trump campaign spokesperson told People, “This never happened. There is no merit or veracity to this fabricated story.”
Read more about Natasha Stoynoff here:
6. Cassandra Searles
GettyMiss Washington USA Cassandra Searles is introduced during the 2013 Miss USA pageant at PH Live at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on June 16, 2013.
Cassandra Searles, the 2013 Miss Washington winner, spoke out on in a Facebook post.
“Do y’all remember that one time we had to do our onstage 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,” she wrote in October 2016.
She also wrote in a follow-up comment, “He probably doesn’t want me telling the story about that time he continually grabbed my ass and invited me to his hotel room,” according to Rolling Stone.
Read more about Cassandra Searles here:
7. Temple Taggart
Temple McDowell Taggart. (Facebook)
Temple Taggart, a former Miss Utah winner, told the New York Times that she was sexually harassed by Trump when she was a 21-year-old pageant competitor.
The incident occurred in 1997 at a Miss USA event, she said, when Trump owned the beauty pageant.
“He kissed me directly on the lips,” she told the Times. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, gross.’ He was married to Marla Maples at the time. I think there were a few other girls that he kissed on the mouth. I was like ‘Wow, that’s inappropriate.'”
She said he invited her to visit him later to talk about her future. Taggart said that he also kissed her on the lips in Trump Tower, and boasted about his connections to elite modeling agencies. Taggart said he told her she might have to lie about her age to get ahead.
“‘We’re going to have to tell them you’re 17,'” Taggart told the Times, “because in his mind, 21 is too old. I was like, ‘No, we’re not going to do that.'”
8. Jill Harth
GettyJill Harth attends the New York Weddings Event at Metropolitan Pavilion on March 28, 2012 in New York City.
Jill Harth, a New York City-based makeup artist, accused Trump of sexual assault and harassment in a 1997 lawsuit.
She claimed in the lawsuit the misconduct occurred between 1992 and 1997. She claims that Trump once attempted to sexually assault her in his daughter Ivanka Trump’s bedroom.
“He pushed me up against the wall, and had his hands all over me and tried to get up my dress again, 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 told The Guardian.
Trump has denied the allegations and has pointed to emails from last fall in which she said she was “Team Trump” and asked about a job.
“I thought I was making nice, maybe they’d call me for makeup, maybe I could get some kind of work out of the dude,” Harth told New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. “But it was not well thought out. It came back to bite me, and I look like a fool.”
Read more about Jill Harth here:
9. Tasha Dixon
Tasha Dixon, a former Miss Arizona, says Donald Trump frequently walked in on his contestants changing.
Tasha Dixon, the 2001 Miss Arizona winner, told CBS Los Angeles that Trump walked in on her and other Miss USA pageant contestants while they were changing. He was the owner of the contest.
“Our first introduction to him was when we were at the dress rehearsal and half naked changing into our bikinis,” Dixon told the news station. “He just came strolling right in. There was no second to put a robe on or any sort of clothing or anything. Some girls were topless. Other girls were naked.”
She said she is typically more conservative, but decided to speak out after recent reports about Trump surfaced.
“I’m telling you Donald Trump owned the pageant for the reasons to utilize his power to get around beautiful women,” she told CBS LA. “Who do you complain to? He owns the pageant. There’s no one to complain to. Everyone there works for him.”
Her story is similar to one Trump himself talked about on the Howard Stern Show in 2005. “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. And therefore, I’m inspecting it. You know I’m inspecting it. I want to make sure everything is good. … Is everyone OK? You know they’re standing there with no clothes. Is everybody OK? And you see these incredible looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that.”
Dixon said she had not heard the Stern show audio before talking to CBS LA. Trump’s campaign did not respond to the allegation, but another former pageant contestant, 2001 Miss California Carrie Prejean Boller, told CBS LA, “To paint Mr. Trump as someone who would purposely walk into a women’s dressing room and ask women to come impress him is the most disgusting accusation so far. Mr. Trump has empowered me as a woman, has given me career opportunities and defended me during my reign as Miss California USA.”
Read more about Tasha Dixon here:
10. Lisa Boyne
Lisa Boyne.
Lisa Boyne accused Donald Trump of inappropriate behavior around women at a dinner in 1996.
She told the Huffington Post that Trump and the late modeling agent John Casablancas forced women to walk on the table to leave the dinner.
She alleges that the future president then looked up models’ skirts at the dinner, but “wasn’t interested in me.” Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told the Huffington Post that Trump did not recall who Boyne is and “would never do” what Boyne describes.
Read more about Lisa Boyne here:
11. Ninni Laaksonen
Read more about Ninni Laaksonen here:
12. Summer Zervos
Summer Zervos accuses Donald Trump of sexual harassment during a press conference.
Summer Zervos, a former contestant on The Apprentice, accused Donald Trump in October 2016 of having sexually harassed her nine years earlier.
Zervos is being represented by Gloria Allred, whose clients frequently include victims of sexual abuse. In October, Zervos said that she met with Donald Trump in 2007 to discuss a job opportunity, only for him to forcibly kiss her and thrust his genitals at her as she told him to stop. Gloria Allred says that she has spoken to several people who Zervos told about the incident at the time and who can corroborate. Allred also said that Zervos has passed a polygraph test.
As soon as she arrived at Trump’s office, Zervos alleges that Trump immediately kissed her on the lips.
“She was taken aback, but thought perhaps that Mr. Trump just greeted people that way,” the lawsuit reads.
Zervos says she decided to let the kiss go, and the two began talking. Trump then allegedly told Zervos that he would love to have her work for him, and he complimented her for being smart and attractive. Then, just as she was about to leave, Zervos says that Trump kissed her on the lips a second time.
“The kisses on her mouth — done without her consent — made Ms. Zervos feel uncomfortable, nervous and embarrassed,” the lawsuit reads. “She felt that it was inappropriate behavior. She spoke to a friend and her parents about it, all of whom concluded that this must just the way that Mr. Trump greeted people.”
Zervos says that Trump called her up when she returned home from that meeting and asked her to meet him at a hotel to discuss a job opportunity. Trump was coming to Los Angeles, and he wanted to have dinner with her and meet at a Beverly Hills hotel, Zervos says.
When she met with Trump, Zervos alleges that he again began kissing her on the mouth very aggressively, going on to place his hand on her breast. She says that she tried to get him to stop, making clear she was not interested.
Zervos has a pending lawsuit against Trump for defamation after he called her and other accusers “liars” at a campaign rally in 2016. Zervos’ attorneys are trying to convince a New York Supreme Court judge to allow the case to go forward, with hopes that Trump will be forced to testify in court or at a deposition, opening up the possibility that he will have to reveal more details about other accusations. Her attorneys have subpoenaed documents from Trump campaign about how the accusations were handled.
Read more about Summer Zervos here:
13. Karena Virginia
Karena Virginia, along with attorney Gloria Allred, speaks at a news conference October 20, 2016 in New York.
Karena Virginia, a yoga instructor and life coach from New York, said she did not know Trump before the incident, which occurred in 1998. She was 27 at the time.
She said Trump approached her outside the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York while she waited for a car, and touched her breast without her consent. At a press conference alongside Gloria Allred, she was waiting for a car to take her home when she was approached by Donald Trump and a few other man. She said she recognized Trump, but didn’t know him personally.
She said Trump approached her.
“I knew who he was, but I’d never met him,” she said. “He was with a few other men. I was quite surprised when I overheard him talking to the other men about me. He said ‘hey, look at this one, we haven’t seen her before … look at those legs.’”
Virginia said it as if she was an “object, rather than a person.”
She said Trump walked up to her, “and reached his right arm and grabbed my right arm. Then his hand touched the right inside of my breast. I was in shock, I flinched.”
Virginia said Trump then asked her, “‘Don’t you know who I am? Don’t you know who I am?’”
A teary eyed Virginia said she “felt intimidated, I felt powerless.”
She said her car pulled up and she got in.
“After I closed the door, my shock turned to shame,” she said. “I felt ashamed that I was wearing a short dress and high heels, that feeling of shame stayed with me for awhile, and it made me disinclined to wear short dresses or high heels. For a number of years afterwards I struggled with what to wear so as not to attract unwanted attention.”
Virginia said she told her husband about what Trump had done to her.
“It was difficult for him to understand why I would ever blame myself for being violated,” she said of her husband.
Read more about Karena Virginia here:
14. Kristin Anderson
Kristin Anderson.
In an interview in October 2016 with the Washington Post, Anderson recounted an incident at New York City nightclub in the “early 1990s” in which Trump she said suddenly sat next to her on a couch and slipped his hand up her skirt between her legs — without saying anything. In fact, Anderson told the Post she didn’t even notice the man sitting next to her until she felt his hand on the area of her vagina.
Now 46 years old, Anderson would have been about 22 at the time, if indeed the incident took place in 1992 as she recalled. Trump would have been 46.
She believes that the incident took place on a distinctive red velvet couch at The China Club at Broadway and 75th Street in Manhattan, a club described by New York newspaper Newsday as “Donald’s Monday-night nest,” a nightspot where the real estate tycoon, who had recently been divorced from his first wife Ivana Trump, was known to hang out looking to hit on women.
Anderson recalled that she and her friends were “grossed out” by the incident, but ultimately chose to ignore it, saying, “Okay, Donald is gross. We all know he’s gross. Let’s just move on.”
Hope Hicks, a spokesperson for Trump, called Anderson’s story “ridiculous.”
“Mr. Trump strongly denies this phony allegation by someone looking to get some free publicity. It is totally ridiculous,” Hicks told Post in an emailed denial.
Read more about Kristin Anderson here:
15. Jessica Drake
Gloria Allred and the accuser, Jessica Drake.
Jessica Drake, a porn star, accused Trump of sexual misconduct at a press conference alongside Gloria Allred in October 2016.
Drake said Trump asked her for her phone number and then invited her to his room at a Tahoe golf tournament. She said he also flirted with her and invited her to walk along the golf course with him, which she did. She also says she gave him his phone number. She said two other women came with her to his room because she “didn’t feel right” going alone.
In the penthouse suite, I met Donald again. When I entered the room, he grabbed us tightly in a hug and kissed each one of us without asking permission,” Drake alleged. “He was wearing pajamas. A bodyguard was also present. He asked me about my job as an adult film star, about details on shooting porn, and he also asked us about our personal relationships and whether we were married or single.”
She said it “felt like an interview,” and the women left the room. She says she then received a call from a man calling on Trump’s behalf who allegedly said Trump wanted her to return to his suite. She said she didn’t want to return, so then Trump himself called and allegedly asked her to come have dinner with him.
“What do you want—how much?” —Adult film actress Jessica Drake says Trump offered her money to…spend time with him t.co/XmTbcb3lwA
He allegedly said, according to Drake: “What do you want? How much?” She said she told him that she couldn’t come to his room because she had to return to L.A. for work because she “didn’t want to be with him.” She says she then received another call from either Trump or another person calling on his behalf offering her $10,000.
Drake said she declined again. She was then told Trump would let her use his private jet, an offer she also says she declined. She says she related her experiences immediately afterward to some friends, but she declined to share their names.
Allred said the alleged encounter occurred at a golf tournament in 2006, after Trump had married Melania Trump.
Allred said that Drake does not have a political motive. As to her occupation, Allred said, “In her occupation, she consents to do what she does” and said that Drake is very clear that consent is critical. “Consent is the key word. She teaches consent,” said Allred. “Even if a person is an adult film star…it doesn’t mean that they would consent to sexual contact outside their occupation.”
Read more about Jessica Drake here:
16. Cathy Heller
Cathy Heller told The Guardian in October 2016 that about 20 years earlier she met Trump for the first time and he grabbed her and tried to kiss her. She said he then became angry because she twisted away and said, “Oh come on,” before “holding her firmly in place and planting his lips on hers,” according to The Guardian.
Heller said she believes the incident happened in 2017 at an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
“I was angry and shaken,” she told The Guardian. “He was pissed. He couldn’t believe a woman would pass up the opportunity.”
Heller said she thought he felt “entitled” to the kiss.
