Another woman said Tuesday she was sexually assaulted by Donald Trump on a plane in the late 1970s during a civil trial in New York charging the former US president with rape and defamation by author E. John Carroll .
• Also read: Trump in civil trial in New York for alleged defamation and rape
Jessica Leeds, 81, who broke the silence in The New York Times back in 2016, told Manhattan Federal Civil Court how she got out of her first-class seat on a plane bound for New York “in 1978-79” because of the Businessman tried to kiss his neck and then put his hands on his body.
“There was no discussion, it came out of nowhere (…) He tried to kiss me, grabbed my breasts,” Ms Leeds said at the civil trial that began last week over alleged rape and defamation, filed by Ms Carroll demanding compensation from Donald Trump.
Before the nine jurors, Jessica Leeds testified under oath that she found the strength to get up and walk when Mr. Trump “put his hands under my blouse.”
“It seemed like an eternity to me” when it took place in a few “seconds”, added this woman, invited to testify by lawyers for Ms. Carroll, who accuses the former President of the United States of being raped in a dressing room have a New York department store in 1996.
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Donald Trump, who did not appear at the trial, denies these allegations and claims that he never met this former journalist, who was notably a columnist for Elle magazine.
Jessica Leeds explained she only broke the silence in 2016, when Donald Trump said during a presidential debate against Hillary Clinton that he respected “women” and had never committed sexual assaults.
The jury was able to watch this television sequence in which the Republican candidate had to defend himself after broadcasting offensive language against women.
“I was furious that he lied,” Ms Leeds said.
Earlier Tuesday morning, a friend of E. Jean Carroll and columnist Lisa Birnbach corroborated the complainant’s account.
She confirmed that she called her shortly after the alleged facts in 1996 to let her know Donald Trump had “attacked” her.
“I want the world to know that she was telling the truth,” Birnbach said.
This witness was also questioned by Donald Trump’s defense about unkind remarks she had made about the ex-president, who has been described as a “narcissistic sociopath,” “Russian agent,” and “Putin’s employee.”
Comments she suspected on Tuesday.
Donald Trump will not be prosecuted for rape in this case. E. Jean Carroll filed the complaint under a New York State law last November that provided that option for one year for statute-barred sexual assault cases.