Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Guardian staff

Sexual misconduct allegations against Donald Trump – a timeline

a man in a suit and tie waves
The allegations are part of a well-documented pattern of behavior by Donald Trump. Illustration: Guardian Design

A former model has accused Donald Trump of groping and sexually touching her in 1993, in what she believed was a “twisted game” between him and Jeffrey Epstein, who she claims introduced them.

Stacey Williams, who was a model in the 1990s, said she first met Trump in 1992 after being introduced by Epstein. Williams said that while on a walk with Epstein in early 1993, he suggested they stop by Trump Tower. Soon after they arrived, she alleges, Trump pulled her toward him and started groping her, putting his hands “all over my breasts”, waist and her buttocks. Williams said she froze and that she believed she saw the men smiling at each other.

A Trump spokesperson has denied the allegations, calling them politically motivated and “unequivocally false”.

The allegation of groping and unwanted sexual touching follows a well-documented pattern of behavior by Trump. This is a list of many of the allegations made against the former president. Trump has denied all the claims:

2013

Cassandra Searles

Age: 24, Location: Miss USA 2013 pageant

“He probably doesn’t want me telling the story about that time he continually grabbed my ass and invited me to his hotel room.”

The former Miss Washington 2013 alleged in a comment on Facebook that Trump repeatedly grabbed her buttocks and invited her to his hotel room.

Source: Facebook, via Yahoo News

2007

Summer Zervos

Age: Early 30s, Location: Trump Tower and a hotel in Los Angeles

“He then grabbed my shoulder and began kissing me again very aggressively and placed his hand on my breast.”

The former contestant on The Apprentice has accused Trump of groping and kissing her on two occasions. She settled a defamation suit against Trump without compensation in 2021.

Source: Gloria Allred press event

2006

Ninni Laaksonen

Age: 20, Location: Outside the Ed Sullivan Theater before an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman

“Trump stood right next to me and suddenly he squeezed my butt.”

The former Miss Finland alleges Trump grabbed her buttocks during a photoshoot before an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman.

Laaksonen said: “Somebody told me there that Trump liked me because I looked like Melania when she was younger. It left me disgusted.”

Source: Finnish newspaper Ilta-Sanomat

2006

Jessica Drake

Age: 32, Location: A golf tournament in Lake Tahoe

“When we entered the room he grabbed each of us tightly in a hug and kissed each of us on the lips without asking for permission.”

Drake alleges Trump forcibly kissed her and two female friends on the lips and when rebuffed, pursued her, asking: “How much?”

Source: Gloria Allred press event

2006

Samantha Holvey

Age: 20, Location: Miss USA 2006 pageant

“He would step in front of each girl and look you over from head to toe like we were just meat, we were just sexual objects, that we were not people.”

The former Miss North Carolina alleges Trump would barge into the pageant dressing room and inspected women like “meat”.

Source: CNN

2005

Rachel Crooks

Age: 22, Location: Outside the elevator in Trump Tower

“[Trump] kissed me directly on the mouth.”

Crooks, then a receptionist at real estate firm Bayrock Group, whose offices are in Trump Tower, said she introduced herself to Trump outside the building’s elevator one morning. Trump began kissing her cheeks, and then “kissed me directly on the mouth”, she said.

“It was so inappropriate … I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that,” said Crooks.

Source: New York Times

2005

Natasha Stoynoff

Age: 40, Location: A closed-door room in Mar-a-Lago

“I turned around, and within seconds he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat.”

Stoynoff alleges Trump forcibly kissed her. As a People Magazine reporter, Stoynoff said she was sent to Mar-a-Lago to interview Trump for a story about his first wedding anniversary with Melania, where he forced himself on to her.

“We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us. I turned around, and within seconds he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat,” wrote Stoynoff.

Source: People

2005

Jennifer Murphy

Age: 26, Location: Outside an elevator after an interview

“I was thinking ‘Oh, he’s going to hug me’, but when he pulled my face in and gave me a smooch. I was like ‘Oh – kay.’”

The former contestant on The Apprentice alleges Trump forcibly kissed her after a job interview.

Source: Grazia magazine

2003

Melinda McGillivray

Age: 23, Location: At Mar-a-Lago during a concert by Ray Charles

“All of a sudden I felt a grab, a little nudge. I think it’s Ken’s camera bag, that was my first instinct. I turn around and there’s Donald. He sort of looked away quickly. I quickly turned back, facing Ray Charles, and I’m stunned.”

McGillivray alleges Trump grabbed her buttock in a pavilion behind the main house in the middle of a group of people. Ken Davidoff, who was Mar-a-Lago’s official photographer, said he remembered McGillivray telling him on the night: “Donald just grabbed my ass!”

Source: Palm Beach Post

2001

Tasha Dixon

Age: 19, Location: Backstage at the 2001 Miss USA pageant

“Our first introduction to him was when we were at the dress rehearsal and half-naked changing into our bikinis.”

The former Miss Arizona alleges Trump entered dressing rooms while her fellow contestants were “half-naked”.

Source: CBS News

Early 2000s

Karen Johnson

Age: Unknown, Location: Mar-a-Lago

“I was grabbed and pulled behind a tapestry, and it was him. And I’m a tall girl and I had six-inch heels on, and I still remember looking up at him. And he’s strong, and he just kissed me. I was so scared because of who he was.”

The former dancer has claimed she was grabbed by Trump during a New Year’s Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in the early 2000s, when he allegedly groped and forcibly kissed her. Johnson, in an interview for a 2019 book, alleged the assault happened just out of sight from other guests, including her husband, and that, just like his Access Hollywood tape boast that his fame allowed him to get away with grabbing women “by the pussy” without consent, he did the same to her.

Source: Esquire

2000

Bridget Sullivan

Age: 19, Location: Backstage at the 2000 Miss USA pageant

“The time that he walked through the dressing rooms was really shocking. We were all naked.”

The former Miss New Hampshire alleges Trump walked in to the dressing room unannounced while contestants were naked.

Source: BuzzFeed

1998

Karena Virginia

Age: 27, Location: Waiting for a car after the US Open in New York

“Then his hand touched the right side of my breast. I was in shock.”

Virginia alleges Trump grabbed her arm and touched her breast.

Source: Gloria Allred press event

1997

Amy Dorris

Age: 24, Location: US Open

“He just shoved his tongue down my throat and I was pushing him off. And then that’s when his grip became tighter and his hands were very gropey and all over my butt, my breasts, my back, everything. I was in his grip, and I couldn’t get out of it.”

The former model accused Trump of sexually assaulting her at the US Open tennis tournament, accosting her outside the bathroom in his VIP box at the event in New York on 5 September 1997. She spoke to the Guardian in 2020 from her home in Florida and provided evidence to support her account, including corroborators, her ticket to the US Open and photos of her sitting next to Trump at the Open. He was 51 at the time and married to his second wife, Marla Maples.

Source: The Guardian

1997

Cathy Heller

Age: 44, Location: A Mother’s Day brunch at Mar-a-Lago

“He took my hand, and grabbed me, and went for the lips.”

Heller alleges Trump forcibly kissed her on the lips in public at a Mother’s Day brunch at Mar-a-Lago when, she said, she met Trump and he immediately kissed her on the lips, fighting her when she pulled away.

“He was pissed. He couldn’t believe a woman would pass up the opportunity,” she said.

Source: The Guardian

1997

Temple Taggart

Age: 21 Location: A 1997 Miss USA pageant event and in Trump Tower

“He kissed me directly on the lips. I thought, ‘Oh my God, gross.’ He was married to Marla Maples at the time.”

The former Miss Utah alleged Trump forcibly kissed her on the mouth on two occasions, including the first time she met him.

Trump also kissed her on the mouth during a meeting at Trump Tower, she claimed, where he recommended the she lie about her age to advance her career.

Source: The New York Times

1997

Mariah Billado

Age: 18, Location: Backstage at the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant

“I remember putting on my dress really quick because I was like, ‘Oh my God, there’s a man in here.’”

The former Miss Vermont Teen USA and other unnamed accusers allege Trump walked into the dressing room unannounced while teen beauty queens aged 15 to 19 were naked.

Source: Washington Post

1996

Lisa Boyne

Age: 25, Location: A New York restaurant

“[Trump] stuck his head right underneath their skirts.”

Boyne alleges Trump insisted the female models walk across the table and that he looked up their skirts, commenting on whether they were wearing underwear and their genitalia.

Source: The Huffington Post

Either 1995 or 1996

E Jean Carroll

Age: 52, Location: Bergdorf Goodman, New York City

“He leaned down and pulled down my tights.” She said: “I was pushing him back. It was quite clear I didn’t want anything else to happen.”

A New York jury found Trump sexually abused the advice columnist in a New York department store changing room 27 years ago. The verdict in May 2023 for the first time legally branded a former US president as a sexual predator. But as it is the result of a civil not criminal case, the only legal sanction Trump faces is financial.

Carroll testified in court, telling jurors: “He leaned down and pulled down my tights.” She said “I was pushing him back. It was quite clear I didn’t want anything else to happen.”

Source: The Guardian

1993

Stacey Williams

Age: in her twenties, Location: Trump Tower

“He pulled me into him and started groping me, he put his hands all over my breasts, my waist, my butt and I froze … deeply confused … his hands were moving all over me.”

The former model spoke to the Guardian about how she met Trump through the late sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein, whom she was dating at the time, and has accused the former president of groping and sexually touching her in an incident in Trump Tower, his office and residence complex on New York’s Fifth Avenue, in what she believed was a “twisted game” between the two men.

Source: The Guardian

1993

Jill Harth

Age: early 30s, Location: One of the children’s bedrooms at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate

“He pushed me up against the wall, and had his hands all over me and tried to get up my dress again.”

A former business partner, Harth alleges Trump forcibly kissed her on the lips and groped her breasts and grabbed her genitals, in what she referred to in a 1997 lawsuit as “attempted rape”. On a previous occasion, she alleges, he groped her under the table during dinner with colleagues at the Plaza Hotel.

Harth later dropped the lawsuit after settling with Trump in a separate breach of contract case, according to the AP.

Source: The Guardian

Early 1990s

Kristin Anderson

Age: Early 20s, Location: China Club, a Manhattan nightclub

“He did touch my vagina through my underwear.”

Anderson alleges Trump put his hand up her skirt and touched her genitals through her underwear.

Source: The Washington Post

1989

Ivana Trump

Age: 40, Location: The master bedroom of the Trump Tower triplex

“I referred to this as a ‘rape’, but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense.”

In a divorce deposition, Trump’s first wife used “rape” to describe an incident that transpired between them. After a settlement was reached, and the rape allegation became public in a 1993 book, Ivana softened the claim. As part of her nondisclosure agreement, she was not allowed to discuss her marriage to Trump without his permission.

Source: Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J Trump

1980s

Jessica Leeds

Age: 38, Location: A first-class cabin of a plane

‘He was like an octopus … His hands were everywhere’

Leeds alleges Trump groped grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt.

Source: The New York Times

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.