Trump groped me on flight woman tells US civil trial
On Tuesday, a woman testified in a New York civil trial that Donald Trump sexually assaulted her on a flight in the late 1970s.
While testifying in the writer E. Jean Carroll's rape and defamation lawsuit against the ex-president, Jessica Leeds recounted the alleged attack.
Leeds testified in federal court in Manhattan that Trump put his hand up her skirt on a business class flight to New York in 1978 or 1979.
"There was no dialogue. "It came out of nowhere," Leeds, now 81, said.
"He was trying to kiss me, grabbing my breasts," she explained.
Trump has categorically denied all allegations of sexual assault and has never been criminally prosecuted for any of them.
Carroll's lawyers called Leeds to testify in order to persuade the nine-person jury that Trump has engaged in a pattern of sexual misconduct.
Carroll, 79, has accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a changing room at Manhattan's opulent Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s.
She also claims that Trump defamed her by calling her "a complete con job" after she made the allegation public in 2019.
Leeds made her allegations in an interview with The New York Times just weeks before Trump was elected President.
In the run-up to the election, about a dozen women came forward to accuse Trump of sexual misconduct.
Leeds made the allegation public after Trump denied sexual assault allegations during a presidential debate with Hillary Clinton.
"I was furious because he was lying," Leeds said.
Jurors were also shown video of Trump's previous denial of Leeds' accusation, in which he stated, "Believe me, she would not be my first choice."
Trump's attorneys confirmed that the former president would not testify.
'Narcissistic sociopath' - Carroll's friend testified as well on Tuesday, telling jurors that Carroll called her shortly after the alleged attack in 1996 to confide in her.
"I want the world to know she was telling the truth," Lisa Birnbach said during her testimony.
Trump's lawyers claimed Birnbach was motivated by politics, citing podcast comments in which she referred to Trump as a "narcissistic sociopath," a "Russian agent," and a "asset" of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Carroll filed her lawsuit late last year, after a New York law went into effect giving victims of sexual assault a one-year window to sue their alleged abusers decades after the attack.
The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages and requests that Trump retract his remarks.
Carroll's civil case cannot result in a criminal prosecution, but if Trump loses, it will be the first time he has ever been held legally liable for a sexual assault allegation.
The case is one of several legal challenges Trump faces as he seeks re-election to the White House in next year's election.
He pleaded not guilty last month in a criminal case involving a hush-money payment made to a porn star just before the 2016 election.
Trump is also being investigated for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia, his alleged mishandling of classified documents taken from the White House, and his involvement in the January 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol by his supporters.
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