A former mannequin who says she met Donald Trump by means of the late sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein has accused the previous president of groping and sexually touching her in an incident in Trump Tower in 1993, in what she believed was a “twisted game” between the 2 males.
Stacey Williams, who labored as an expert mannequin within the Nineteen Nineties, stated she first met Trump in 1992 at a Christmas get together after being launched to him by Epstein, who she believed was a great pal of the then New York actual property developer. Williams stated Epstein was concerned with her and the 2 casually dated for a interval of some months.
“It became very clear then that he and Donald were really, really good friends and spent a lot of time together,” Williams stated.
The alleged groping occurred some months later, within the late winter or early spring of 1993, when Epstein steered throughout a stroll they had been on that he and Williams cease by to go to Trump at Trump Tower. Epstein was later convicted on intercourse offenses and killed himself in jail in 2019.
Moments after they arrived, she alleges, Trump greeted Williams, pulled her towards him and began groping her. She stated he put his fingers “all over my breasts” in addition to her waist and her buttocks. She stated she froze as a result of she was “deeply confused” about what was occurring. On the identical time, she stated she believed she noticed the 2 males smiling at one another.
Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary for Donald Trump’s marketing campaign, offered a press release denying the allegations, which stated partially: “These accusations, made by a former activist for Barack Obama and announced on a Harris campaign call two weeks before the election, are unequivocally false. It’s obvious this fake story was contrived by the Harris campaign.”
Williams says that Trump despatched her agent a postcard by way of courier later in 1993, an aerial view of Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Seashore residence and resort. She shared it with the Guardian. In his handwriting – utilizing what seems to be his ordinary black Sharpie – he wrote: “Stacey – Your home away from home. Love Donald”.
Williams, who’s 56 and a local of Pennsylvania, shared elements of her allegation on social media posts up to now, however revealed particulars in regards to the alleged encounter on a name on Monday organized by a gaggle referred to as Survivors4Harris, which helps Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. The Zoom name featured actress Ashley Judd, legislation professor and tutorial Anita Hill amongst others. Survivors4Harris additionally took out an advert within the New York Instances this week, signed by 200 survivors of sexual and gender violence, which was meant to function a reminder that Trump has been discovered chargeable for sexual abuse in a court docket.
After the alleged incident, Williams stated that she and Epstein left Trump Tower, and that she started to really feel Epstein rising offended at her.
“Jeffrey and I left and he didn’t look at me or speak to me and I felt this seething rage around me, and when we got down to the sidewalk, he looked at me and just berated me, and said why did you do that?” she stated on the Zoom name.
“He made me feel so disgusting and I remember being so utterly confused,” she stated.
She described how the alleged incident appeared to her to be a part of a “twisted game”.
“I felt shame and disgust and as we went our separate ways, I felt this sensation of revisiting it, while the hands were all over me. And I had this horrible pit in my stomach that it was somehow orchestrated, I felt like a piece of meat,” she stated in an interview with the Guardian.
She and Epstein parted methods quickly after. Williams stated she by no means had any data of his sample of sexual abuse, which might later turn out to be identified. He’s now thought of one of many worst and most prolific pedophiles in fashionable historical past.
The allegation of groping and undesirable sexual touching follows a nicely documented sample of conduct by Trump.
About two dozen girls have accused the previous president and convicted felon of sexual misconduct relationship again a long time. The allegations have included claims of Trump kissing them with out their consent, reaching beneath their skirts, and – within the case of some magnificence pageant contestants, strolling in on them within the altering room.
A former mannequin named Amy Dorris shared comparable allegations about Trump to what Williams described, in an interview with the Guardian in 2020. Trump denied ever having harassed, abused or behaving improperly towards Dorris.
Final 12 months a jury discovered Trump chargeable for sexually abusing the columnist E Jean Carroll in 1996 and awarded her $5m in a judgement.
Williams’s allegations increase new questions on Trump’s relationship with Epstein.
No proof has surfaced that Trump was conscious of or concerned in Epstein’s misconduct.
However Trump and Epstein knew one another for many years and had been photographed on the identical social occasions within the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s, years earlier than Epstein pleaded responsible in Florida in 2008 to state expenses of soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution.
“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump instructed New York journal in 2002. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
After Epstein was arrested on intercourse trafficking expenses in 2019, Trump instructed journalists within the Oval Workplace that he “knew him, like everybody in Palm Beach knew him” however that he had a “falling out” with Epstein within the early 2000s.
“I haven’t spoken to him in 15 years,” Trump stated. “I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.”
Requested whether or not she had thought of coming ahead up to now, as different girls had been making allegations towards Trump, Williams stated she was an individual who needed to keep away from damaging consideration or danger the backlash many different survivors have confronted.
“I left the business,” she stated. “I disappeared on purpose because I love being anonymous and I love my life of being a private citizen. Then I watched what has happened to women who come out and it is so horrifying and abusive. The thought of doing that, especially as a mother with a child in my house, was just not possible,” she instructed the Guardian.
“I just chose in my own way – comments on social media to contradict people who said he didn’t do anything,” she stated.
Like different survivors, she stated, she has processed what occurred to her and have become extra assured about dealing with an offended backlash, she stated.
Williams spoke in regards to the allegations to no less than two buddies who spoke to the Guardian. One pal, who requested to not be named, stated Williams instructed her in regards to the alleged incident in 2005 or 2006 throughout a dialog wherein she talked about realizing Epstein, and the way he had launched her to Trump. The pal particularly remembers Williams telling her that she had been groped by Trump. Epstein was not a family identify on the time, however the pal would later recall the anecdote when the Epstein scandal erupted.
“What I recall is that it was groping … what we would call feeling someone up,” the pal stated.
Ally Gutwillinger, one other longtime pal, stated Williams instructed her in regards to the alleged incident in 2015. Gutwillinger remembers the timing as a result of Trump had introduced that he was working for president.
“I went to her house sometime in that week and I saw a postcard of Mar-a-Lago and I said ‘What’s this?’ and she said ‘Turn it over,’” Gutwillinger stated. “She said something like, he’s vile, he groped me in Trump Tower.”
