- At least 25 women have accused President Donald Trump of sexual misconduct since the 1970s.
- Renewed attention has been brought to the allegations amid the #MeToo movement and a national conversation concerning sexual misconduct.
- Trump has repeatedly denied the accusations, denouncing his accusers as “liars.”
- In June 2019, columnist E. Jean Carroll accused President Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room the mid-1990s.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
As a national conversation on sexual misconduct is gripping the country from Hollywood to Capitol Hill, some renewed attention has been focused on the sexual misconduct allegations that at least 25 women have made against Trump since the 1970s.
A deluge of women made their accusations public following the October 2016 release of the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump was recorded boasting about grabbing women’s genitals in 2005. Some others made their stories public months before the tape’s release, and still others came forward in the months following.
Trump has broadly dismissed the allegations, which include ogling, harassment, groping, and rape, as “fabricated” and politically motivated accounts pushed by the media and his political opponents. He promised to sue all of his accusers during the 2016 election. In some cases, Trump and his lawyer have suggested that he didn’t engage in alleged behavior with certain women because they weren’t attractive enough for him to be interested in.
“Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign,” the Republican nominee said during a 2016 rally. “Total fabrication. The events never happened. Never. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.”
The president said these "false allegations" against him were made by "women who got paid a lot of money to make up stories about me." And then alleged that the "mainstream media" refused to report on evidence that the accusations were made up.
Trump has not yet made good on his promise to sue any of the women - although two women have sued him - and the White House says that Trump's election proves the American people don't consider the allegations disqualifying.
"The people of this country, at a decisive election, supported President Trump, and we feel like these allegations have been answered through that process," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters in December 2017, after several of the president's accusers appeared on national television to rehash their allegations.
But despite Trump's denials, 50% of voters - 59% of women and 41% of men - surveyed in a December 2017 Quinnipiac poll released think the president should resign as a result of the sexual misconduct allegations against him. Several Democratic lawmakers have recently called on Trump to resign over the accusations.
One accuser, Samantha Holvey, who out again last year about her experience with Trump as a Miss USA pageant contestant, said that while his election was painful, she and others see the #MeToo movement as an opportunity to "try round two."
"We're private citizens, and for us to put ourselves out there to try and show America who this man is and especially how he views women, and for them to say 'meh, we don't care' - it hurts," Holvey said on NBC News' "Megyn Kelly Today" in December 2017. "And so now it's just like, all right, let's try round two. The environment's different. Let's try again."
Here are all of the allegations - in chronological order - made by 25 named women:
Jessica Leeds
Allegations:
Jessica Leeds told the New York Times in October 2016 that Trump reached his hand up her skirt and groped her while seated next to her on a flight in the late 1970s.
"He was like an octopus. His hands were everywhere," Leeds said, adding that she fled to the back of the plane.
During an interview on NBC News' "Megyn Kelly Today" in December, Leeds added that she was at a gala in New York three years after the incident on the plane when she ran into Trump, who recognized her and called her a c---.
"He called me the worst name ever," she said. "It was shocking. It was like a bucket of cold water being thrown over me."
Trump's response:
Trump denied the allegations and during a rally in October 2016, suggested that 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,'" Trump said. "Believe me, she would not be my first choice."
Ivana Trump
Allegations:
In a 1990 divorce deposition, Trump's first wife and the mother of his three eldest children Ivana Trump accused her then-husband of raping her in a fit of rage in 1989.
Ivana said Trump attacked her after he underwent a painful "scalp reduction" procedure done by a doctor she had recommended, tearing her clothes and yanking out a chunk of her hair.
"Then he jams his penis inside her for the first time in more than 16 months. Ivana is terrified … It is a violent assault," Harry Hurt III, who obtained a copy of the deposition, wrote in a 1993 book about Trump. "According to versions she repeats to some of her closest confidantes, 'he raped me.'"
Ivana later slightly altered her allegation, saying that while she felt "violated" on that occasion, she hadn't accused Trump of raping her "in a literal or criminal sense."
"[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," Ivana wrote in a 1993 statement. "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."
Ivana is mother to Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka Trump.
Trump's response:
Trump called Hurt's description of Ivana's allegation "obviously false" in 1993, according to Newsday. Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, argued in 2015 that his client could not have raped Ivana because "you cannot rape your spouse."
"There's very clear case law," he said.
Cohen later recanted, saying his comment was "inarticulate."
Kristin Anderson
Allegations:
Kristin Anderson, a photographer and former model said Trump reached under her skirt and touched her vagina through her underwear at a New York City nightclub in the early 1990s.
Anderson, then in her early 20s, said she wasn't talking with Trump at the time and didn't realize he was sitting next to her when he groped her without her consent.
"So, the person on my right who, unbeknownst to me at that time was Donald Trump, put their hand up my skirt. He did touch my vagina through my underwear, absolutely. And as I pushed the hand away and I got up and I turned around and I see these eyebrows, very distinct eyebrows, of Donald Trump," she told The Washington Post in October 2016.
Anderson said she and her friends, who were talking together around a table at the time of the incident, were "very grossed out and weirded out," but thought "Okay, Donald is gross. We all know he's gross. Let's just move on."
Trump's response:
"Mr. Trump strongly denies this phony allegation by someone looking to get some free publicity," Hope Hicks, the president's then-spokeswoman and current White House communications director, told the Post in October 2016. "It is totally ridiculous."
Jill Harth
Allegations:
Jill Harth, a businesswoman who worked with Trump in the 1990s, told the Guardian in July 2016 that Trump pushed her against a wall, put his hand up her skirt, and tried to kiss her at a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort in the early 1990s.
"He was relentless," she told the New York Times. "I didn't know how to handle it. I would go away from him and say I have to go to the restroom. It was the escape route."
Harth sued Trump in 1997 both for sexual harassment and for failing to uphold his end of a business deal with Harth and her then-partner.
Trump's response:
Hicks responded to the Times' reporting, denying Harth's allegations wholesale.
"Mr. Trump denies each and every statement made by Ms. Harth," she said.
Lisa Boyne
Allegations:
Lisa Boyne, a health food business entrepreneur, told HuffPost in October 2016 that she attended a 1996 dinner with Trump and modeling agent John Casablancas during which several other women in attendance were forced to walk across a table in order to leave.
As the women walked on the table, Boyne says that Trump looked up their skirts and commented on their underwear and genitals. Trump allegedly asked Boyne for her opinion on which of the women he should sleep with.
Boyne joined Jessica Leeds, Samantha Holvey, Rachel Crooks - three others who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct - in calling on Congress to investigate Trump in December.
Trump's response:
Hicks denied Boyne's allegations. "Mr. Trump never heard of this woman and would never do that," she told HuffPost.
Mariah Billado and Victoria Hughes
Allegations:
Two Miss Teen USA contestants told BuzzFeed News in October 2016 that Trump walked in on them while they were changing in their dressing rooms.
"I remember putting on my dress really quick because I was like, 'Oh my god, there's a man in here,'" Mariah Billado, who represented Vermont in 1997, told BuzzFeed. Billado added that Trump said something along the lines of, "Don't worry, ladies, I've seen it all before."
Victoria Hughes, a former Miss New Mexico, said Trump first introduced himself to the teenage contestants when he unexpectedly walked into their dressing room.
"It was certainly the most inappropriate time to meet us all for the first time," she told BuzzFeed.
Trump's response:
Trump appeared to admit to this behavior when he boasted in an April 2005 interview with radio host Howard Stern that he regularly walked into contestants' dressing rooms on the beauty pageants he owned while women were unclothed.
"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," he said. "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."
In October 2016, the Trump campaign called the allegations politically motivated lies.
"These accusations have no merit and have already been disproven by many other individuals who were present," the campaign said in a statement. "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."
Temple Taggart
Allegations:
Temple Taggart, a former Miss Utah, told the New York Times in May 2016 that Trump "kissed me directly on the lips" when she met him at the Miss USA pageant in 1997. Trump did the same thing when Taggart met with him again at Trump Tower in Manhattan after he offered to aid her modeling career, she said.
In November 2017, Taggart spoke out again, telling the Times that the allegations against Trump were "brushed under the rug."
Trump's response:
Trump "emphatically" denies Taggart's claims.
"I don't even know who she is," Trump told NBC News in October 2016. "She claims this took place in a public area. I never kissed her. I emphatically deny this ridiculous claim."
Cathy Heller
Allegations:
Cathy Heller told the Guardian in October 2016 that she was attending a Mother's Day brunch with her husband, children, and in-laws at Mar-a-Lago in the 1990s when Trump approached her table, introduced himself to her, and forcibly kissed her.
"He took my hand, and grabbed me, and went for the lips," she said, and added that she was "angry and shaken" as a result of the incident.
Trump's response:
A Trump campaign spokesman denied Heller's allegation, arguing that it couldn't have happened in public.
"There is no way that something like this would have happened in a public place on Mother's Day at Mr. Trump's resort," Jason Miller said. "It would have been the talk of Palm Beach for the past two decades."
Karena Virginia
Allegations:
Karena Virginia, a yoga instructor and life coach, told the Washington Post in October 2016 that Trump groped her as she waited for her car outside the US Open in New York in 1998.
Virginia, then 27, said she overheard Trump talking with a group of men about her legs and that Trump then approached her, grabbed her arm, and touched her breast before asking, "Don't you know who I am?"
Trump's response:
"Give me a break," Trump representative Jessica Ditto said in response to Virginia's allegation. "Voters are tired of these circus like antics and reject these fictional stories and the clear efforts to benefit Hillary Clinton."
Tasha Dixon and Bridget Sullivan
Allegations:
Two Miss USA contestants said Trump walked into their dressing rooms, where female participants were changing, and ogled them.
Tasha Dixon, a former Miss Arizona who competed in the 2001 Miss USA pageant, told CBS in October 2016 that Trump walked into the contestants' dressing room while they were changing.
"He just came strolling right in," Dixon said. "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 added, "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."
Dixon said there was "no one to complain to" because Trump owned the pageant and everyone employed there reported to him.
Bridget Sullivan, Miss New Hampshire in 2000, told BuzzFeed News in May 2016 that Trump walked into the contestants' dressing room unannounced and hugged her inappropriately.
"The time that he walked through the dressing rooms was really shocking. We were all naked," Sullivan said, comparing Trump to a "creepy uncle." "He'd hug you just a little low on your back."
Trump's response:
In October 2016, the Trump campaign denied Dixon's allegations, calling them politically motivated fabrications.
"These accusations have no merit and have already been disproven by many other individuals who were present," the campaign said in a statement. "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."
Melinda McGillivray
Allegations:
Melinda "Mindy" McGillivray told the Palm Beach Post in October 2016 that Trump grabbed her buttocks while they were backstage during a Ray Charles concert at Mar-a-Lago in 2003.
Ken Davidoff, a photographer present at the concert, said McGillivray, then 23, approached him soon after the incident and said, "Donald just grabbed my a--!"
McGillivray spoke out again on "Megyn Kelly Today" in December, calling for a congressional investigation into the accusations of sexual misconduct against Trump.
"He has to face the music; he can't get away with this," McGillivray said. "I want justice."
Trump's response:
The Post reported that Trump did not respond to requests for comment concerning McGillivray's accusation, but the president has broadly denied all of the sexual misconduct accusations made against him.
"The timing and absurdity of these false claims speaks volumes and the publicity tour that has begun only further confirms the political motives behind them," White House press secretary Sanders said after the TV appearance in December.
Natasha Stoynoff
Allegations:
People magazine reporter Natasha Stoynoff wrote in an October 2016 column that Trump sexually assaulted her in 2005 at Mar-a-Lago. Stoynoff was visiting Trump and his new wife, Melania, at their Florida estate to report on a story about the couple's first year of marriage.
While a pregnant Melania was changing clothes for a photoshoot, Trump offered to show Stoynoff a "tremendous" room at the resort.
"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," Stoynoff wrote.
She added that Trump told her they would have a sexual affair. "Have you ever been to Peter Luger's for steaks? I'll take you. We're going to have an affair, I'm telling you," he allegedly said.
Trump's response:
Trump denied the allegations, tweeting last year, "Why didn't the writer of the twelve year old article in People Magazine mention the 'incident' in her story. Because it did not happen!"
Jennifer Murphy and Juliet Huddy
Allegations:
Two women have said Trump kissed them without their consent, but that they weren't offended by it at the time.
Juliet Huddy, a former Fox News anchor, said on the "Mornin!!! With Bill Schulz" podcast in December 2017 that Trump kissed her on the lips without her consent after a meeting in Trump Tower in Manhattan 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. Huddy added that she was surprised by the kiss, but "didn't feel threatened" or "offended" at the time.
"Now that I've matured, I would've said, 'Nope.' At that time, I was making excuses," she said in December.
Jennifer Murphy, a former contestant both in Miss USA and Trump's reality TV show "The Apprentice," told Grazia magazine in December 2016 that Trump kissed her unexpectedly following a job interview in Trump Tower in 2005.
Although Murphy said she was "very taken aback at the time," she later told CNN that she "wasn't offended" by the kiss. She said 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."
-
Jennifer Murphy, formerApprentice star, just did @CNN FOR Trumpand admits he kissed her...OOPSIE. #NeverTrump https://t.co/d8ZKZc5ofB
— Girls Really Rule. (@girlsreallyrule) October 15, 2016
Trump's response:
The White House denied Huddy's account, according to the New York Daily News.
Rachel Crooks
Allegations:
Rachel Crooks told the New York Times in October 2016 that Trump kissed her on the mouth without her consent when she introduced herself him in 2005 Trump Tower in Manhattan, where she worked as a receptionist.
She told the Times that she and Trump shook hands and then he kissed her "directly on the mouth."
Crooks told her sister, who confirmed her account to the Times, but said she thought she would lose her job if she told her company anything about the interaction.
"I was shocked, devastated," she said during a December 2017 interview on "Megyn Kelly Today," adding: "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."
Crooks joined calls for a congressional investigation into Trump's alleged misconduct.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZbFIKczomQ
Trump's response:
Trump denied Crooks' account in an interview with the New York Times in October 2016. "None of this ever took place," he said, threatening to sue the Times if it reported on the allegations.
Samantha Holvey
Allegations:
Samantha Holvey, a contestant in the 2006 Miss USA pageant, which Trump owned, told CNN in October 2016 that Trump personally inspected each of the pageant contestants individually.
"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, adding that it made her feel "the dirtiest I felt in my entire life."
Then a 20-year-old student at a private Southern Baptist college, Holvey said she "had no desire to win when I understood what it was all about."
Holvey also called for a congressional investigation into Trump's alleged misconduct.
Trump's response:
CNN, who first reported on Holvey's allegations, said Trump did not respond to requests for comment, but the president has broadly denied all of the sexual misconduct accusations made against him.
Ninni Laaksonen
Allegations:
Ninni Laaksonen, a model and former Miss Finland, told Finnish newspaper Ilta-Sanomat in October 2016 that Trump groped her backstage at the "Late Show with David Letterman" in 2006.
"Trump stood right next to me and suddenly he squeezed my butt," Laaksonen said. "He really grabbed my butt. I don't think anybody saw it, but I flinched and thought, 'What is happening?'"
Trump's response:
The newspaper did not include a response from Trump, but the president has broadly denied all of the sexual misconduct accusations made against him.
Jessica Drake
Allegations:
At an October 2016 press conference, adult-film actress Jessica Drake accused Trump of grabbing and kissing her without permission and offering her money to accept a private invitation to his penthouse hotel room in Lake Tahoe in 2006.
"This is not acceptable behavior for anyone, much less a presidential candidate," Drake said. "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's response:
Trump called Drake's accusations "total fiction" and implied that Drake was accustomed to being "grabbed" because she is a porn actress.
"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," he said on WGIR radio.
Summer Zervos
Allegations:
Summer Zervos, a former contestant on NBC's "The Apprentice," told reporters at an October 2016 press conference that Trump assaulted her during a 2007 meeting at The Beverly Hills Hotel.
"He then grabbed my shoulder and began kissing me again very aggressively and placed his hand on my breast," she said. "I pulled back and walked to another part of the room. He then walked up, grabbed my hand, and pulled me into the bedroom. I walked out." Zervos added that Trump thrust himself on her before she left the room.
Zervos sued Trump for defamation after he accused her of lying about the allegations. Trump's attorneys have moved to dismiss the case, arguing that, as president, he can't be sued in state court and that his remarks about his accusers are political speech. The suit is ongoing.
Trump's response:
"I vaguely remember Ms. Zervos as one of the many contestants on 'The Apprentice' over the years," Trump 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. In fact, Ms. Zervos continued to contact me for help, emailing my office on April 14 of this year asking that I visit her restaurant in California."
Cassandra Searles
Allegations:
Cassandra Searles, who represented the state of Washington at the 2013 Miss USA pageant, wrote in a June 2016 Facebook post that Trump treated herself and other female Miss USA contestants "like cattle" and had them "lined up so he could get a closer look at his property."
"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 added.
Trump's response:
Trump has not specifically denied Searles' allegations, but he has broadly denied all of the sexual misconduct accusations made against him.
Alva Johnson
Allegations:
Alva Johnson, a former Trump campaign staffer, said that Trump kissed her without her consent at a Tampa, Florida rally on August 24, 2016.
Johnson, 43, said Trump grabbed her hand and kissed her on the side of her mouth as he exited an RV outside of the rally, according to details in a new federal lawsuit and an interview with the Washington Post.
"Oh, my God, I think he's going to kiss me," Johnson said in a February 2019 interview with the Post. "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."
Johnson filed a federal lawsuit against Trump in February.
Trump's response:
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told INSIDER in a statement, "This accusation is absurd on its face. This never happened and is directly contradicted by multiple highly credible eye witness accounts."
E. Jean Carroll
Allegations:
Former Elle advice columnist E. Jean Carroll accused President Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her in a department store dressing room the mid-1990s.
"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," Carroll wrote in an excerpt of her 2019 book,"What Do We Need Men For?".
She went on, "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."
Trump's response:
The White House denied Carroll's allegations in a statement to New York magazine in June 2019.
"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," the statement read.
Karen Johnson
Karen Johnson, a regular at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, said Trump pulled her behind a tapestry and kissed and groped her without her consent during a New Year's Eve party there in the early 2000s.
"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," Johnson said. "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."
Johnson said Trump forcibly grabbed her genitals.
"When he says that thing, 'Grab them in the pussy,' that hits me hard because when he grabbed me and pulled me into the tapestry, that's where he grabbed me," she said, according to the book excerpt.
Johnson said Trump called her repeatedly after the incident, offering to fly her to New York to visit him. She said she refused his advances and never saw him again or visited Mar-a-Lago, where she'd had her wedding reception years earlier.
Trump's response:
The White House denied the allegation and slammed "All the President's Women."
"That book is trash and those accusations from 20 years ago have been addressed many times," the White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, told Insider.