A woman who accused Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her on a plane in the late 1970s told a Manhattan jury that it felt like the former president had “40 zillion hands”.
Jessica Leeds, 81, testified on Tuesday on behalf of writer E Jean Carroll in her civil rape and defamation lawsuit against Mr Trump.
Ms Leeds recalled she had been moved from the economy cabin to an aisle seat in first class on the flight to New York’s LaGuardia Airport in about 1979.
Mr Trump had introduced himself, and they engaged in small talk, before having a meal, she said.
“All of a sudden, Trump decided to kiss me and grope me,” she said.
“There was no conversation. It was like out of the blue. It was like a tussle. He was trying to kiss me, trying to pull me towards him,” she said.
“He was grabbing my breasts. It was like he had 40 zillion hands. It was like a tussling match between the two of us.”
Ms Leeds, of North Carolina, said that another passenger witnessed the alleged assault, but nobody came to her aid.
When Mr Trump tried to put a hand up her skirt, she got out of her seat and moved back to her seat in economy, she said.
After the plane landed, Ms Leeds said she had remained onboard until every passenger had disembarked to avoid seeing Mr Trump again.
She later told how she had cut her hair short and would avoid wearing dresses after the distressing encounter “to try to remove as much attention to my feminity as I could”.
Ms Leeds testified that she met Mr Trump again at a fundraising gala for the Humane Society of New York at Saks Fifth Avenue in 1981.
She had been handing out table chits and had been excited to meet some of the famous guests in attendance, she told the jury.
“Everybody was dressed to the nines,” she said.
Then, she said, Mr Trump and his “very, very pregnant wife” Ivana came up to the table.
“I looked at him and I thought ‘boy I remember you’,” she said. “I didn’t say anything. As I took the chit from his hands, he said: ‘I remember you, you’re that c*** from the airplane.”
Ms Leeds said it felt like “a bucket of cold water had been poured over my head”. She suddenly felt as if she was completely alone, and gathered her things and went home.
She said she didn’t tell anyone about the alleged assault for nearly 40 years, until she became incensed while watching a presidential debate between Mr Trump and Hillary Clinton in October 2016.
She wrote a letter to the New York Times describing what had taken place, and they published her story before the presidential election.
Under cross-examination, defence attorney Joe Tacopina asked why Ms Leeds had waited for nearly 40 years before she told anyone about the alleged sexual assault.
She said she hadn’t wanted to complain to her bosses about “the rigours of travel”.
“It was the late 70s, women didn’t complain about situations in their workplace,” she said.
“All of the jobs that I’ve held over the years have been in male-dominated fields, and the banter was … frequently sexual in nature”.
After her testimony, Ms Leeds told The Independent outside court: “I’m exhausted, I’m above it all and I hope I never have to tell my story again.”
In a separate prepared statement to media outside the Moynihan federal courthouse, Ms Leeds, 81, said that Ms Carroll’s rape allegation against the former president “rings true to me”.
Ms Leeds also encouraged anyone who had suffered sexual aggression to “know they are not alone, and they can speak up”.
“We’ve seen how society and perpetrators don’t get the message of how damaging aggression is until it becomes apparent,” she said.
“Go ask your mothers, your wives, your sisters, your daughters and your sons.”
Ms Carroll is suing the former president in civil court for defamation and battery after he claimed she was a “con job”. Mr Trump, 76, has strongly denied the encounter ever took place.
Earlier on Tuesday, Ms Carroll’s close friend Lisa Birnbach testified that the writer had called her immediately after the alleged sexual assault at Bergdorf Goodman in 1996.
Ms Birnbach said that the writer was hyperventilating as she told her about the encounter, the Associated Press reported.
She said had urged Ms Carroll to report the incident to the police, but she refused and they agreed never to speak about it again.
