Former US President Donald Trump appears to be in more trouble after a woman accused him of sexually abusing her on a flight in the late 1970s. Jessica Leeds, the alleged victim, disclosed the alleged assault while testifying in writer E Jean Carroll’s rape and defamation case against the former president. Trump has denied all of these charges and has never been charged.
The new allegations were brought in a New York civil trial in response to Carroll’s claim that Trump sexually abused her. Trump pleaded not guilty to a hush-money payment to an adult movie star last month. He is also being probed for suspected mismanagement of confidential White House materials, the Capitol Hill incident, and his efforts to overturn his Georgia election loss in 2020.
What did Leeds say in court?
According to AFP, Leeds testified in Manhattan’s federal court that Trump placed his hand up her skirt in the business class portion of a flight to New York in 1978 or 1979. “There was no conversation. It was like out of the blue,” she said. Leeds, now 81, claimed he attempted to kiss her and grab her breasts.
‘It was like he had 40 zillion hands’: Leeds
“He was trying to kiss me, trying to pull me towards him. He was grabbing my breasts. It was like he had 40 zillion hands. It was like a tussling match between the two of us,” she told the court.
Leeds was testifying in the case of novelist Carroll.
Notably, Carroll’s lawyers requested that Leeds appear in order to persuade the nine-person jury that Trump has participated in a history of sexual assault. Furthermore, Leeds is not the first to accuse Trump. She and a dozen more women accused Trump of sexual misconduct just weeks before the election in 2016. “I was furious because he was lying,” she recalled.
Carroll accused Trump of what?
Carroll said that the former US president sexually harassed her in a changing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in 1996. The former Elle magazine journalist also alleged that after she went public with her allegations, the 76-year-old defamed her. Trump, on the other hand, has repeatedly denied the claims and has not been charged legally in the subject.
Carroll’s legal action against Trump
Carroll’s lawsuit seeks unspecific damages for “significant pain and suffering, long-term psychological and financial harms, loss of dignity and self-esteem, and invasion of privacy.” It also requests that Trump retract his remarks.
She filed the complaint last year after New York passed new legislation giving sexual assault victims a one-year opportunity to sue their accused abusers decades after the assaults.