The XX Factor

UPDATED: The Floodgates Are Open on Trump Sexual Assault Allegations

Donald Trump speaks into the camera in the Oval Office
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office on June 25, 2019. Mandel Ngan/Getty Images

At a presidential debate in 2016, co-moderator Anderson Cooper spent a lot of time trying to get Donald Trump to answer a simple question: Had he ever—as he boasted in the instantly infamous video with Billy Bush—grabbed a woman “by the pussy” or kissed her unexpectedly? After a lot of dithering, Trump said, “And women have respect for me. And I will tell you: No, I have not.” He then tried to take the conversation right back to his comfort zone: borders.

Years later, new accusers are still coming forward with accounts of Trump’s sexual misconduct. Below is a list of the women who have so far accused Trump—if we’ve missed any, tell us in the comments. If and when new allegations come out, we will update this list.

Who: E. Jean Carroll
When we found out about her allegations: June 21, 2019
When she says it happened: Fall 1995 or spring 1996
What she says happened: In an excerpt from her new memoir, Carroll, a longtime advice columnist for Elle and New York, accuses Trump of assaulting her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, a New York department store, in the mid-1990s. She says she saw him coming into the store as she was leaving, and he stopped her—saying he recognized her as “that advice lady”—and asked if she would “advise” him on picking out a present for a girl. She said she suggested handbags or a hat, but Trump wanted lingerie. He proceeded to ask her to try on a piece of lingerie, she said, and she thought it was a joke, so they went to an open dressing room. In the dressing room, Trump shut the door, forced himself on her, put his “fingers around my private area, thrusts his penis halfway — or completely, I’m not certain — inside me.”

Who: Alva Johnson
When we found out about her allegations: Feb. 25, 2019
When she says it happened: 2016
What she says happened: Johnson, who was a staffer on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, said Trump kissed her without her consent at an event before a Florida campaign rally. She alleged in a lawsuit that the incident caused her “anguish.” A judge dismissed Johnson’s lawsuit—which also included allegations that Trump’s campaign discriminated against women and black employees—in June 2019.

Who: Juliet Huddy
When we found out about her allegations: Dec. 8, 2017
When she says it happened: 2005 or 2006
What she says happened: Huddy, a former television anchor and radio host, said Trump leaned in to kiss her after he took her out to lunch. The incident happened around the time that Trump married his third wife, Melania. “He said goodbye to me in an elevator while his security guy was there. Rather than kiss me on the cheek he leaned in to kiss me on the lips,” she recalled. “I wasn’t offended, I was kind of like, ‘Oh my God.’ ”

Who: Ninni Laaksonen
When we found out about her allegations:
 Oct. 27, 2016
When she says it happened: 2006
What she says happened: The allegations surfaced when the Finnish newspaper Ilta-Sanomat reached out to her and other women who had had contact with Trump. Laaksonen told the paper that she met him in 2006, when she was Miss Finland and competed in the Miss Universe pageant. When she was taking a picture with Trump and other contestants, she said, according to the Telegraph’s translation of the Finnish, “Trump stood right next to me and suddenly he squeezed my butt. He really grabbed my butt. I don’t think anybody saw it but I flinched and thought: ‘What is happening?’ ”

Who: Jessica Drake
When we found out about her allegations:
 Oct. 22, 2016
When she says it happened: 
2006
What she says happened:
 At a news conference in Los Angeles, Drake, who is an adult film actress and represented by attorney Gloria Allred, said that Trump grabbed and kissed her without her consent at a charity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. CNN reports that one of Trump’s representatives called her afterward to invite her to Trump’s room alone. When Drake refused, she said, Trump got on the phone and offered her $10,000 and use of his private jet if she would accept the invitation. On Oct. 24, Trump responded to Drake’s allegations: “One said, ’He grabbed me on the arm.’ And she’s a porn star… Oh, I’m sure she’s never been grabbed before.”

Who: Karena Virginia
When we found out about her allegations: Oct. 20, 2016
When she says it happened: 1998
What she says happened: At a press conference with attorney Gloria Allred, Virginia said that the incident happened as she was waiting to for a car in 1998, at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in Queens, New York. According to Virginia, she overheard Trump saying to other men, “Hey, look at this one. We haven’t seen her before. Look at those legs.” Then, she said, he “walked up to me and reached his right arm and grabbed my right arm. Then his hand touched the right inside of my breast. I was in shock. I flinched. ‘Don’t you know who I am? Don’t you know who I am?’ That’s what he said to me.” Then her car arrived and she left.

Who: Cathy Heller
When we found out about her allegations: 
Oct. 15, 2016
When she says it happened: About 1997
What she says happened: According to the Guardian, it happened at a Mother’s Day brunch at Mar-a-Lago, in front of other people, as he went from table to table to say hello: “Some 20 years ago, she claims, when she met Donald Trump for the first and only time, he grabbed her, went for a kiss, and grew angry with her as she twisted away. ‘Oh, come on,’ she alleges that he barked, before holding her firmly in place and planting his lips on hers.” A relative who was there that day “didn’t see Heller’s entire interaction with Trump, but saw him get ‘in her face’ and saw Heller pull away.
‘He was very forceful.’ ”

Who: Summer Zervos
When we found out about her allegations: Oct. 14, 2016
When she says it happened: 2007
What she says happened: Zervos appeared on Season 5 of The Apprentice, which aired in early 2006. In a press conference Oct. 14, 2016, with attorney Gloria Allred, Zervos described two occasions when Trump touched her inappropriately. When she visited him in New York in 2007 to discuss a potential job, she says, he kissed her on the lips both when she arrived and when she left. Some time later, he asked her to meet him at a hotel in Los Angeles for dinner. When he met her in his hotel bungalow, “he came to me and started kissing me open-mouthed as he was pulling me toward him,” she says. She pulled away and sat on a chair, until he told her to sit next to him. “He then grabbed my shoulder and began kissing me again very aggressively and placed his hand on my breast.” She says she pulled away again, only to have him again grab her and try repeatedly to get her to go into the bedroom, suggesting they “lay down and watch some telly-telly.” She tried to make a joke, but he grabbed her again. “I pushed his chest to put space between us and I said, ‘Come on, man, get real.’ He repeated my words back to me, ‘Get reeeal,’ as he began thrusting his genitals. He tried to kiss me again, with my hand still on his chest.” Later, Zervos said, she got an offer from the company for a job, but for much less money than she expected, and she wrote him a letter saying she thought she was being penalized for not having sex with him. He never responded.

Who: Kristin Anderson
When we found out about her allegations: 
Oct. 14, 2016
When she says it happened: 
Early 1990s
What she says happened: 
The Washington Post writes that “Kristin Anderson was deep in conversation with acquaintances at a crowded Manhattan nightspot and did not notice the figure to her right on a red velvet couch—until, she recalls, his fingers slid under her miniskirt, moved up her inner thigh, and touched her vagina through her underwear.” Anderson says that at first she largely laughed off the incident, sharing it with friends occasionally. But with time, and with Trump’s presidential run, she has come to think about it differently. As with other accusers, she says she was disturbed by the Access Hollywood video from 2005 and by his denial at the town hall debate that he has never touched a woman inappropriately. “It wasn’t a sexual come-on. I don’t know why he did it. It was like just to prove that he could do it, and nothing would happen,” she told the Post.

Who: Lisa Boyne
When we found out about her allegations: Oct. 13, 2016
When she says it happened: mid-1990s
What she says happened: First published in the Huffington Post, Boyne’s account describes Trump looking up women’s skirts and commenting on whether they were wearing underwear at a restaurant. Boyne said Trump would parade the women in front of their table before looking under their skirts. (Another woman who was also at the dinner said she didn’t remember acting in that manner.)

Who: Natasha Stoynoff
When we found out about her allegations: Oct. 12, 2016
When she says it happened: 2005
What she says happened: People magazine’s Stoynoff writes that she visited Mar-a-Lago in December 2005 to interview Trump and his wife, Melania, who was pregnant. While Melania was getting changed, Stoynoff says, Trump took her to another room. “Within seconds, he was pushing me against the wall, and forcing his tongue down my throat,” she says in an account of the incident for People. Later, he told her, “You know we’re going to have an affair, don’t you?” She told a colleague after the trip and thought about reporting it, but she writes, “I was ashamed and blamed myself for his transgression. I minimized it (‘It’s not like he raped me…’); I doubted my recollection and my reaction. I was afraid that a famous, powerful, wealthy man could and would discredit and destroy me, especially if I got his coveted PEOPLE feature killed.”

Who: Jessica Leeds
When we found out about her allegations:
 Oct. 12, 2016
When she says it happened:
 Early 1980s
What she says happened:
 Leeds tells the New York Times that on a flight more than 30 years ago, she was upgraded from coach to first class, where she was seated beside Trump. From the Times: “Mr. Trump raised the armrest, moved toward her and began to grope her. Ms. Leeds said she recoiled. She quickly left the first-class cabin and returned to coach, she said.” Leeds says she never told anyone about it until the campaign started, when she began telling a small number of people.

Who: Rachel Crooks
When we found out about her allegations: Oct. 12, 2016
When she says it happened: 2005
What she says happened: In the same New York Times article as Leeds’ story, Crooks says that when she was 22, she worked as a receptionist at a real estate company based in Trump Tower. One morning, she rode the elevator with him. “Aware that her company did business with Mr. Trump, she turned and introduced herself. They shook hands, but Mr. Trump would not let go, she said. Instead, he began kissing her cheeks. Then, she said, he ‘kissed me directly on the mouth.’ ” He later asked for her phone number, suggesting that he wanted to give it to his modeling agency. She told her sister and her then-boyfriend about it soon after it happened.

Who: Mindy McGillivray
When we found out: Oct. 12, 2016
When she says it happened: 2003
What she says happened: From the Palm Beach Post: “McGillivray, 36, said she was groped by Trump at Mar-a-Lago 13 years ago.
She said she never reported it to authorities. But her companion that day, photographer Ken Davidoff, vividly remembers that McGillivray pulled him aside moments after the alleged incident and told him, ‘Donald just grabbed my ass!’”

Who: Victoria Hughes
When we found out: Oct. 13, 2016
When she says it happened: 1997
What she says happened: Hughes, a former Miss New Mexico Teen USA, came forward after BuzzFeed published the accounts of Mariah Billado and three other unnamed former 1997 Miss Teen USA contestants who said Trump walked in on them while they were changing. “It was certainly the most inappropriate time to meet us all for the first time,” Hughes told BuzzFeed News. “The youngest girl was 15, and I was the eldest at 19.”

Who: Mariah Billado and three unnamed former contestants
When we found out: Oct. 12, 2016
When she says it happened: 1997
What she says happened: Billado, a former Miss Vermont Teen USA, and four other 1997 Miss Teen USA beauty pageant contestants said Trump walked into the dressing room while they were changing and not fully clothed. Some were as young as 15, according to BuzzFeed News. Trump, she recalled, said something like, “Don’t worry, ladies, I’ve seen it all before.”

Who: Tasha Dixon
When we found out: Oct. 11, 2016
When she says it happened: 2001
What she says happened: Dixon, a former Miss Arizona and Miss USA pageant contestant, said contestants were forced to greet Trump even when they were not fully dressed. “Our first introduction to him was when we were at the dress rehearsal and half naked changing into our bikinis,” Dixon told a Los Angeles CBS affiliate in 2016. “He just came strolling right in. There was no second to put a robe on or any sort of clothing or anything. Some girls were topless. Other girls were naked.” Dixon competed in the pageant, then owned by Trump, in 2001. She was 18.

Who: Jennifer Murphy
When we found out: Oct. 10, 2016
When she says it happened: 2005
What she says happened: Murphy said Trump kissed her on the lips after a job interview. Trump had just married Melania. Murphy was a contestant on Season four of The Apprentice. “He walked me to the elevator, and I said goodbye. I was thinking ‘oh, he’s going to hug me’, but when he pulled my face in and gave me a smooch,” Murphy told Grazia in 2016. She said she would still vote for him, adding that “I don’t want him to ever feel I’m throwing him under the bus, because I’m not.”

Who: Erin Burnett’s friend
When we found out: Oct. 7, 2016
When she says it happened: Unknown
What she says happened: After the infamous “grab-’em-by-the-pussy” video surfaced, CNN’s Erin Burnett said on air that an unnamed friend of hers reported that Trump once attempted to kiss her on the mouth. Burnett quoted her friend as saying, “Trump took Tic Tacs, suggested that I take them also. He then leaned in… catching me off guard and kissed me almost on the lips. I was really freaked out.”

Who: Cassandra Searles
When we found out:
 June 17, 2016
When she says it happened:
 2013
What she says happened:
 In 2013, Searles, then Miss Washington USA, competed in the Trump-owned Miss USA pageant. Yahoo News reports that in June, Searles posted on Facebook a photo of Trump with the Miss USA 2013 competitors. “Do y’all remember that one time we had to do our onstage introductions, but this one guy treated us like cattle and made us do it again because we didn’t look him in the eyes? Do you also remember when he then proceeded to have us lined up so he could get a closer look at his property? … Oh I forgot to mention that guy will be in the running to become the next President of the United States.” After some of her fellow beauty queens responded to the post, she added in a comment: “He probably doesn’t want me telling the story about that time he continually grabbed my ass and invited me to his hotel room.”

Who: Bridget Sullivan
When we found out:
 May 18, 2016
When she says it happened:
 2000
What she says happened:
 Sullivan told BuzzFeed News that Trump came backstage during preparations for the national broadcast of the Miss Universe pageant in 2000 to wish the contestants, of which Sullivan was one, good luck. But many weren’t dressed. “The time that he walked through the dressing rooms was really shocking. We were all naked,” Sullivan said. She also told BuzzFeed that Trump would “hug you just a little low on your back” and give you “a squeeze that your creepy uncle would.”

Who: Temple Taggart McDowell
When we found out:
 May 14, 2016
When she says it happened:
 1997
What she says happened:
 Taggart told the New York Times that when she was Miss Utah in 1997, “‘He kissed me directly on the lips. I thought, ‘Oh my God, gross.’ He was married to Marla Maples at the time. I think there were a few other girls that he kissed on the mouth. I was like ‘Wow, that’s inappropriate.’”

Who: Jill Harth
When we found out:
 April 4, 2016
When she says it happened: 
1993
What she says happened:
 Harth’s allegations appeared first in a 1997 lawsuit and were surfaced first in the Boston Globe, then again in the big May 14 New York Times article on women and Trump.* She says that when she and her partner worked with Trump on a beauty competition in the early ’90s, he harassed her, eventually escalating to what she calls “attempted rape.” In July 2016, she told the Guardian, “He pushed me up against the wall, and had his hands all over me and tried to get up my dress again … and I had to physically say: ‘What are you doing? Stop it.’ ”

Who: Ivana Trump
When we found out:
 1993
When she says it happened:
 1989
What she says happened: 
During Trump’s first messy divorce, Ivana alleged in a deposition that he assaulted her when he was angry and in pain after undergoing a hair-line procedure with a plastic surgeon she had recommended. In the 1993 book Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump, Harry Hurt III described a violent episode. “According to versions she repeats to some of her closest confidantes, ‘he raped me,’ ” Hurt wrote. Ivana later walked this back, saying in a statement included in Lost Tycoon, “I referred to this as a ‘rape,’ but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense.”

Correction, Oct. 13, 2016: This post originally misstated where Jill Harth’s lawsuit against Trump was first widely reported. It was in the Boston Globe in April, not the New York Times in May.   

Update, Oct. 13, 2016: Readers are asking why we didn’t include a widely circulated civil suit alleging that Trump raped a 13-year-old girl. This week, a judge ordered that Trump have legal representation at an upcoming court date for the suit. But as Jezebel has reported, there are a lot of reasons to reserve judgment on that story.)