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These are the women who have accused Donald Trump of sexual assault – Metro US

These are the women who have accused Donald Trump of sexual assault

At least 12 women have accused U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump of sexual advances and groping. Among his accusers are a Miss Utah beauty pageant winner, a businesswoman, a reporter and a receptionist. He has denied the accusations.

In a 2005 video that emerged on Oct. 7, Trump boasted about grabbing women by the genitals and kissing them without their consent. In a U.S. presidential debate on Oct. 9, he said he was embarrassed by what he called “locker-room talk” but had not engaged in the conduct he described in the video.

Trump has called “absolutely false” the allegations by several women of groping and other misconduct, reported by The New York Times and other news media. At a rally this month, after two more women made accusations of groping, he denounced all the recent allegations by a series of women, calling them fabrications and calling the women “sick.”

Following are some of the allegations against Trump:

Jessica Leeds, 74, recounted in a video interview posted on The New York Times website on Oct. 12 that Trump grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt on a flight to New York in or around 1980 when she was a 38-year-old traveling businesswoman. In a tweet and in a later speech on Oct. 13, Trump called the Times story a total fabrication.

Kristin Anderson, in a video posted on the website of The Washington Post on Oct. 14, said Trump put his hand up her skirt in a crowded New York nightclub in the early 1990s in an unwanted advance, when she had never even met him. “He did touch my vagina through my underwear, absolutely,” Anderson said in the video interview.

Jill Harth, a former Trump beauty pageant business associate, filed a $125 million lawsuit in 1997 against Trump alleging that on Jan. 24, 1993, at Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, Trump “forcibly removed plaintiff to a bedroom, whereupon defendant subjected plaintiff to defendant’s unwanted sexual advances.” A Trump spokesperson was quoted on Oct. 7 in The New York Times as saying, “Mr. Trump denies each and every statement made by Ms. Harth.” The lawsuit was dropped in May 1997.

Temple Taggart McDowell, a former Miss Utah, was quoted by The New York Times in a report published on May 15 as saying that Trump “kissed me directly on the lips” when the two were introduced in 1997, when she was 21. Taggart told the Times, “I thought, ‘Oh my God, gross.'” The Times story said Trump disputed the report and added that Trump said “he is reluctant to kiss strangers on the lips.”

Cathy Heller said that Trump in 1997 tried to kiss her during a Mother’s Day brunch at Mar-A-Lago. Heller, her husband, her three children and her in-laws attended the event. When she was introduced to Trump, “He took my hand, and grabbed me, and went for the lips,” she told The Guardian newspaper. She said she leaned backward to avoid him and almost lost her balance. “And he said, ‘Oh, come on.’ He was strong. And he grabbed me and went for my mouth and went for my lips.” She said she turned her head and Trump kissed her on the side of the mouth.

Yoga instructor Karena Virginia, at a news conference in New York City in October, said Trump approached her outside the U.S. Open tennis tournament in 1998. They had never met, and she was 27 years old, she said. She alleged that Trump commented on her legs and then touched her breast before she was able to get into a car and be driven away. Trump campaign spokeswoman Jessica Ditto said the accusation was a publicity-seeking attack coordinated with Democratic opponent HillaryClinton, and added: “Voters are tired of these circus-like antics and reject these fictional stories.”

Mindy McGillivray was cited in an article published in The Palm Beach Post on Oct. 12 that while she was a 23-year-old photographer’s assistant at a Jan. 24, 2003, event at Mar-a-Lago, Trump had grabbed her buttocks. The Palm Beach Post cited a Trump spokesperson as saying, “This allegation lacks any merit or veracity.”

Rachel Crooks, formerly a receptionist at a real estate firm, told The New York Times in a report published on Oct. 12 that Trump “kissed me directly on the mouth” in 2005 at Trump Tower in Manhattan when she was 22. In a tweet and in a later speech on Oct. 13, Trump called the Times story a total fabrication.

Natasha Stoynoff, a reporter, wrote a first-person account that described Trump kissing her without her consent in December 2005 at Mar-a-Lago while she was working on an article about him and his third wife, Melania, for People magazine. In the account published by People on Oct. 12, Stoynoff said “he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat.” In a tweet and in a later speech on Oct. 13, Trump said the episode described did not happen.

Summer Zervos, who was a contestant on Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice” in 2006, said at a news conference on Oct. 14 in Las Vegas that Trump tried to get her to lie down on a bed with him when she met him in 2007 to discuss a possible job. Zervos said she complied with a request to sit next to Trump, and, “He then grabbed my shoulder and began kissing me very aggressively and placed his hand on my breast.” Trump at a rally in North Carolina denounced the allegations made by a series of women in recent days, calling them fabrications.

Ninni Laaksonen, a former Miss Finland, accused Trump of groping her in 2006 when she was representing her country in the Miss Universe beauty contest. Laaksonen told the Ilta-Sanomat newspaper that he had grabbed her behind before she appeared on a television show in New York with other contestants. “He really grabbed my butt. I don’t think anybody saw it but I flinched and thought: ‘What is happening?’,” she was quoted as saying in the newspaper.

Jessica Drake, an adult film actor, accused Trump of pressuring her to have sex with him 10 years ago when they met at a golf tournament. After, she said, a man, possibly Trump, called to offer her $10,000 if she would have sex with him, which she declined. Trump’s campaign said the accusations were false.