At a time when Donald Trump is facing an impeachment inquiry from the House of Representatives, the president finds himself back in the headlines for even more controversy. On Wednesday, October 9, an excerpt from the upcoming book All the President’s Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator by journalists Barry Levine and Monique El-Faizy, 43 new allegations are levied against the president.
Out of the 43 new allegations of inappropriate conduct in the book, 26 involve unwanted sexual conduct, according to a report from Esquire.
In the first excerpt from the book, a woman named Karen Johnson says that she was groped by Trump during a Mar-a-Lago New Year’s Eve party in the early 2000s. She says that Trump pulled her behind a tapestry while she was on her way to the restroom.
“When he says that thing, ‘Grab them in the pussy’ [in the Access Hollywood tape], that hits me hard because when he grabbed me and pulled me into the tapestry, that’s where he grabbed me—he grabbed me there in my front and pulled me in,” she said.
From the report:
“I hadn’t seen [Trump] that whole entire night,” said Johnson, who was in her late thirties at the time. “I was just walking to the bathroom. 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,” she recounted to us. “I was so scared because of who he was… I don’t even know where it came from. I didn’t have a say in the matter.”
Johnson said Trump then grabbed her hand and said, “You have to help me greet these guests out,” explaining that Melania was upstairs. “So I stood next to him while he greeted some guests out the door,” Johnson said. She didn’t let on that anything was amiss because she didn’t want to create an awkward situation. “I was afraid to say what had happened,” she said. “I didn’t even know how it happened.”
Trump has previously denied all allegations against him and said that they were made up and politically motivated or that the women were simply looking for fame. We will have to wait and see how he responds to the latest flurry of allegations in All the President’s Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator.