Donald Trump’s sexual assault accuser Jessica Leeds says she laughed out loud when the former president recently contradicted her sworn testimony that he grabbed her, tried to kiss her and ran his hands up her skirt on a plane in the 1970s, claiming she wasn’t elected.”
“He attacked me 50 years ago and continues to attack me today,” Leeds said, along with his lawyers, at a news conference in New York on Monday. “It was like he had 47 arms – like an octopus, but there was no sound.”
His remarks came after Trump attended the sexual assault appeal hearing of E Jean Carroll, which resulted in a jury finding Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation of Carroll.
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Leeds, 82, came forward in 2016 and later testified at Carroll’s trial, which centered on Carroll’s testimony that the Republican candidate for November’s election had assaulted her at a department store in the 1990s. This set the stage for Trump to go to great lengths to protest Carroll and Leeds.
Regarding Leeds, Trump said it was a “completely made up story” that “never happened,” and he suggested that this was supporting Democrats.
“And frankly — I know you’re going to say that’s a terrible thing to say — but it couldn’t have happened. It didn’t. And he wouldn’t have been chosen.”
Leeds has accused Trump of groping her in the first class section of the plane. He said he fought him off and moved to the back of the plane. At his press conference, he said he bumped into him later, prompting him to shout “I remember you” before calling him a derogatory term.
Trump, meanwhile, said: “Think about the impracticality of this. I’m famous — I’m on a plane. People get on the plane, and I look at a woman and grab her and start kissing her and making out with her. What are the chances of that happening?”
Leeds’ claim first surfaced shortly after Trump discussed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before she won the 2016 presidential election. During that campaign, hot mic footage from Access Hollywood captured Trump saying, “I just start kissing them, it’s like a magnet, just kiss, I don’t even wait. When you’re a star, they just let you do it. You can do anything. Grab those pussies. You can do anything.”
Leeds then told the New York Times that he believed “his behavior is deep in his character”.
“For those who would vote for him, I would hope they would consider this,” Leeds said.
Leeds said Monday that he and his attorney were considering “a number of options” after Trump’s remarks on Friday, which he described as “strange.”
She added that Trump “has no respect for women” and should not be re-elected president.
“The trick is that he doesn’t realize he’s a sexual predator,” she said.
Trump is fighting several other legal cases in addition to Carroll when he faces Kamala Harris in the race for the White House on November 5. These include three pending charges related to efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden and his retention of classified documents after his presidency.
Meanwhile, he was convicted in May of falsifying criminal records to conceal cash payments to an adult film actress who claimed to have had an extramarital sexual encounter with him about a decade before he won the presidency.
