On Tuesday, a woman testified in a civil trial in New York that Donald Trump had sexually attacked her on an American flight in the late 1970s.
In her testimony for the writer E. Jean Carroll’s rape and defamation case against the former president, Jessica Leeds described the alleged assault.
Leeds testified in federal court in Manhattan that Trump had his hand up her skirt while they were travelling in business class on a trip to New York in 1978 or 1979.
“There was no conversation. It was like out of the blue,” said Leeds, now 81.
“He was trying to kiss me, grabbing my breasts,” she added.
Trump has vehemently and repeatedly refuted any charges of sexual assault, and he has never faced legal action as a result of any such allegations.
To persuade the nine-person jury that Trump has participated in a history of sexual misconduct, Carroll’s attorneys brought Leeds to testify.
Carroll, 79, has filed a lawsuit against Trump, claiming that in the middle of the 1990s, he sexually attacked her in a changing room at the upscale Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan.
She further asserts that after she made the accusation public in 2019, Trump slandered her by calling her “a complete con job.”
Before Trump was elected president in 2016, Leeds first made her accusations in an interview with The New York Times.
About a dozen women came forward accusing Trump of sexual misconduct in the run-up to the vote.
Leeds went public with the accusation after Trump refuted sexual assault allegations during a presidential debate with Hillary Clinton.
“I was furious because he was lying,” Leeds recalled.
Jurors also watched a video of Trump’s previous denial of Leeds’ accusation, where he said, “Believe me, she would not be my first choice.”
Trump’s lawyers confirmed that the ex-president would not be testifying.
‘Narcissistic sociopath’
A friend of Carroll’s also testified 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 testified.
Trump’s lawyers argued Birnbach was motivated by politics, citing comments she has made on podcasts calling Trump a “narcissistic sociopath,” a “Russian agent” and an “asset” of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Carroll filed her lawsuit late last year after a law took effect in New York that gave victims of sexual assault a one-year window to sue their alleged abusers decades after attacks may have occurred.
The suit seeks unspecified damages and asks that Trump retract his comments.
No criminal prosecution can stem from Carroll’s civil case but if Trump loses, it will be the first time he has ever been held legally liable over an allegation of sexual assault.
The case is one of several legal challenges facing Trump as the 76-year-old Republican seeks a return to the White House in next year’s election.
Last month he pleaded not guilty in a criminal case related to a hush-money payment made to a porn star just before the 2016 vote.
Trump is also being investigated over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the southern state of Georgia, his alleged mishandling of classified documents taken from the White House and his involvement in the storming of the US Capitol by his supporters on 6 January 2021.
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