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Another Allegation Against Trump Has Surfaced

by Maya Parthasarathy

After The Washington Post released a 2005 hot mic tape of Donald Trump boasting about groping women without consent, allegations against the GOP nominee have begun to surface. What's worse is the allegations match the very thing Trump describes doing to women, although his camp has vehemently denied them. The Republican presidential candidate said he doesn't actually kiss women without their consent, but a People magazine writer has accused Trump of sexual assault. Natasha Stoynoff, a former writer for the magazine, wrote a piece for People detailing the alleged December 2005 assault.

"This never happened," a Trump spokeswoman told People. "There is no merit or veracity to this fabricated story."

Stoynoff traveled to Mar-a-Lago to interview Donald and Melania Trump for a first wedding anniversary story. When Melania took a break for wardrobe changes, Donald insisted on showing Stoynoff a "tremendous" room in the mansion, Stoynoff alleged.

"We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us," Stoynoff wrote. "I turned around, and within seconds he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat." Stoynoff could only free herself when a butler entered the room and announced that it was time to resume the interview, she claimed.

"'You know we're going to have an affair, don't you?' [Trump allegedly] declared, in the same confident tone he uses when he says he's going to make America great again," Stoynoff claimed. She went on to say she was completely in shock after incident, questioning whether or not she had done something to provoke the alleged interaction.

Trump had arranged for Stoynoff to see a massage therapist, but when Stoynoff arrived, the therapist allegedly told her that Trump had been waiting for her but had to leave for a meeting.

"I lay on the massage table, but my eyes were on the doorknob the entire time," Stoynoff wrote. "He's going to show up and this guy's going to let him in with me half-naked on a table. I cut the session short, got dressed and left for the airport."

"I tried to make myself believe it was no big deal," Stoynoff alleged. "Only, it was."

Stoynoff's description of her alleged assault is eerily similar to what Trump described to Billy Bush in 2005. "I just start kissing them," Trump said on tape. "It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything."

And Stoynoff isn't alone in accusing Trump of sexual assault. On Oct. 12, The New York Times published accounts by two women, Jessica Leeds and Rachel Crooks, who both alleged that Trump touched them inappropriately. When asked about these accusations by a reporter, Trump threatened to sue the news organization, the Times reported, and denied the women's claims. According to the Times, he called the reporter "a disgusting human being" and once again described his words as "locker room talk."

The same day the Times article came out, Miss USA pageant contestant, Cassandra Searles, posted claims about being inappropriately touched and solicited by Trump on Facebook. "He probably doesn't want me telling the story about that time he continually grabbed my ass and invited me to his hotel room," Miss Washington 2013 commented, according to Rolling Stone. (Trump owned the Miss USA pageant between 2002 and 2015.)

The Republican nominee is also currently involved in a federal lawsuit that accuses Trump of raping a minor. The plaintiff, pseudonymously called Jane Doe, alleges that Trump raped her 20 years ago when she was 13 at a party hosted by convicted billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. "The allegations are not only categorically false, but disgusting at the highest level and clearly framed to solicit media attention or, perhaps, are simply politically motivated," Trump told the tabloid website Radar Online. "There is absolutely no merit to these allegations. Period."

The pre-trial hearing was originally scheduled for Sept. 9, but it was pushed back to Oct. 14. It is unlikely that Trump will attend.