President Donald Trump on Tuesday denounced one of several women who have accused him of sexual assault.
A woman I don’t know and, to the best of my knowledge, never met, is on the FRONT PAGE of the Fake News Washington Post saying I kissed her (for two minutes yet) in the lobby of Trump Tower 12 years ago. Never happened! Who would do this in a public space with live security……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2018
….cameras running. Another False Accusation. Why doesn’t @washingtonpost report the story of the women taking money to make up stories about me? One had her home mortgage paid off. Only @FoxNews so reported…doesn’t fit the Mainstream Media narrative.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2018
He appeared to be referring to Rachel Crooks, a former receptionist in Trump Tower and now a candidate for the Ohio state legislature. The Washington Post profiled Crooks on Monday.
The Post’s profile included Crooks’ account of her allegation during a recent dinner party:
She reached for her water glass and lifted it up into the air to use as a prop. “He took hold of my hand and held me in place like this,” she said, squeezing the sides of the water glass, shaking it gently from side to side. “He started kissing me on one cheek, then the other cheek. He was talking to me in between kisses, asking where I was from, or if I wanted to be a model. He wouldn’t let go of my hand, and then he went right in and started kissing me on the lips.”
She shook the water glass one final time and set it down. “It felt like a long kiss,” she said. “The whole thing probably lasted two minutes, maybe less.”
Crooks has been consistent in her story since she first came forward to the New York Times in October 2016.
In the same Times report, Trump defiantly denied the allegations: “None of this ever took place,” he told the paper, which noted that he “began shouting at the Times reporter who was questioning him” and “said that The Times was making up the allegations to hurt him and that he would sue the news organization if it reported them.”
He told the Times reporter: “You are a disgusting human being.”
Crooks told Vox in December, referring to potential Trump Tower surveillance footage of the alleged assault: “Let’s get that out … I’d be more than happy for [Trump] to let that surface.” She repeated the call Tuesday:
Please, by all means, share the footage from the hallway outside the 24th floor residential elevator bank on the morning of January 11, 2006. Let’s clear this up for everyone. It’s liars like you in politics that have prompted me to run for office myself. https://t.co/ir7EEKoXRU https://t.co/GmkkZ5jUc7
— Rachel Crooks for Ohio (@RachelforOhio) February 20, 2018
Crooks was one of numerous women to accuse Trump of sexual misconduct during the 2016 election. The President and his communications team have maintained that his accusers are all lying.
In December, when White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that multiple “eyewitnesses” had denied the allegations against Trump, TPM followed up and asked for more information.
The White House responded with a list of three people. The two page email, which did not any contain information that wasn’t already public, did not disprove any of the allegations against Trump.
Trump’s second tweet on Tuesday, referring to one of his accusers having her mortgage “paid off,” appeared to be a reference to Jill Harth. Harth has acknowledged that her attorney, Lisa Bloom, established a GoFundMe account for her “that was created to help me out financially,” but asserts that it doesn’t affect “the veracity of my 1997 federal complaint against Donald J. Trump for sexual harassment and assault.” The GoFundMe page has raised $2,317 to date.
This post has been updated.
