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A former model has come forward to accuse US President Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her at the US Open tennis tournament more than two decades ago, in an alleged incident that left her feeling “sick” and “raped” .
In an exclusive interview with The Guardian, Amy Dorris alleged that Trump accosted her outside the bathroom in his VIP box at the New York tournament on September 5, 1997.
Dorris, who was 24 at the time, accuses Trump of sticking his tongue down her throat, assaulting her all over her body and holding her in a grip from which she couldn’t escape.
“He just pushed his tongue down my throat and I was pushing him. And that’s when his grip tightened and his hands were very groping and all over my ass, my breasts, my back, everything.
“It was in his grip and he couldn’t get out of it,” he said, adding, “I don’t know what you call that when you’re sticking your tongue down someone’s throat.” But I pushed it with my teeth. He was pushing it. And I think I could have hurt his tongue. “
Amy Dorris in a video interview with The Guardian. “I was in her grip and couldn’t get out of it,” she said. Screenshot: Guardian
Through his attorneys, Trump denied in the strongest possible terms that he ever harassed, abused or misbehaved with Dorris.
Dorris, who lives in Florida, provided The Guardian with evidence to back up her account of her encounters with Trump, including her ticket to the US Open and six photos showing her with the real estate mogul for several days in New York. Trump was 51 at the time and married to his second wife, Marla Maples.
Corroborations
Her account was also corroborated by several people she confided in about the incident. They include a friend in New York and Dorris’s mother, whom she called immediately after the alleged incident, as well as a therapist and friends she spoke with in the years after. They all said that Ms. Dorris had shared details of the alleged incident with them that matched what she later told The Guardian.
Dorris, now 48 and a mother of twin daughters, said she had considered speaking out publicly about the incident in 2016, when several women made similar allegations against the then-Republican presidential candidate public. But she decided not to show up, in part because she thought doing so could harm her family.
“Now I feel like my daughters are about to turn 13 and I want them to know that you don’t let anyone do anything to you that you don’t want to,” she said. “And I prefer to be a role model. I want them to see that I was not silent, that I was confronted with someone who did something that was unacceptable. “
Dorris said she spent several days with Trump in September 1997 after her then-boyfriend, Jason Binn, took her to New York for a long weekend. At the time, Dorris was living with friends in Boca Raton, Florida, and traveled regularly to Miami to work as a model and act occasionally. Binn, founder of several upscale fashion and lifestyle magazines, was a friend of Trump; in 1999, he reportedly described the real estate entrepreneur as his “best friend.”
On Friday, September 5, Dorris said that Binn took her to meet Trump at his office in Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan, before they went together to the US Open in Queens.
“He came in very strong right away,” Dorris said of Trump. “It seemed typical of a certain type, people who just feel they have the right to do whatever they want. . . even though I was there with my boyfriend. “
The couple were joined by other Trump friends in their private box, a luxurious carpeted suite that had a balcony overlooking the court. Photos from the day show Dorris with Trump and his friend Marylou Whitney.
Visit to the bathroom
Dorris said the alleged assault occurred when he got up to go to the bathroom, which was hidden behind a dividing wall a few feet from where Trump’s guests were watching tennis. “I had some problems with my contact lenses,” she said. “I remember going in there to wet my lens.”
When he came out, he alleges, Trump was waiting outside. “At first I thought I was waiting to go to the bathroom, but that was not the case, unfortunately,” he said. She alleges that Trump forced her after a brief exchange in which she remembers laughing nervously and saying, “No, get out.”
She alleged that she told Trump “no, please stop,” but “she didn’t care.” “It doesn’t matter who you are,” she said. “Every time someone says no, it doesn’t mean no. And that just didn’t work for me. It was not enough “.
“I was a bit in a state of shock,” he added. “I felt violated, obviously. But I wasn’t processing it yet and I was just trying to get back to talking to everyone and have a good time because, I don’t know, I felt pressured to be that way. “
Dorris cannot recall whether she told Binn all the details of the alleged assault, but says she asked him to tell Trump to leave her alone. She said she told Mr. Binn: “He is on me. I can’t deal with this. You have to do something.”
Binn did not respond to a request for comment. However, according to Trump’s lawyers, Binn told them that she did not recall Dorris telling her that something inappropriate had happened with Trump or that she was uncomfortable with him.
Dorris said that shortly after the alleged incident, he called a friend who lived in the city and told them what had happened. “I think I felt safe knowing that I had someone in New York that I could go to, God forbid, it made it worse,” she said.
She said Trump did not seriously assault her again during her time in New York, but continued to persecute her despite his strong rejection of his advances.
‘Conservative’ suit
The day after the alleged assault, Dorris and Binn returned to Trump’s box at the US Open. Dorris said she decided to wear a “conservative” outfit of khaki pants, a blue knit sweater and loafers in an effort to discourage further advances from Trump.
The couple stopped by Trump’s apartment at Trump Tower along the way, where they posed for photos with celebrities who were also visiting the real estate mogul before attending tennis, including musicians Lenny Kravitz and Sean Combs, aka Puff Daddy.
Dorris said Trump continued to persecute her, asking questions like, “Could she see herself living here?” “It didn’t matter if I changed my clothes, it was still the same situation,” he said. “I didn’t feel like me that second day at all. It felt like something had been taken from me. “
They were later joined in Trump’s box by more VIP guests, including Leonardo DiCaprio and illusionist David Blaine, with whom they posed for photographs. DiCaprio, Blaine, Kravitz and Combs did not respond to requests for comment.
Two days later, on September 8, 1997, Dorris said she attended a Gianni Versace memorial service with Binn and Trump.
When asked why he kept spending time with Binn and Trump in the days after the alleged assault, Dorris said: “I was there from Florida and I was with Jason. He had no money, he had nowhere to go. We were going from one event to another and it was overwhelming. “
It did not fully process what had happened until later, he added. “People spend years surrounded by people who have abused them, that’s what happens when something traumatic happens, you freeze.”
Trump’s lawyers said Dorris’s version of events did not stand up to any scrutiny and that if Trump had engaged in inappropriate behavior outside the bathroom inside the VIP box, there would have been numerous witnesses.
Trump’s lawyers said it seemed incredible that Dorris voluntarily chose to be around Trump, at the US Open and at the Versace memorial, in the days after the alleged assault. They said that Mr. Binn had raised similar questions about his account. Trump’s lawyers also questioned why Dorris sat next to Trump at the Versace memorial, when he could have sat on the other side of Binn.
They said Dorris had never raised the allegations with a law enforcement agency or Trump, and said the timing of the claims so close to the November presidential election suggested they could be politically motivated.
Make it public
The Guardian first heard about Dorris’s indictment against Trump through a model agent he had worked with in Chicago, whom he had trusted. Dorris first shared her accusation confidentially 15 months ago, but was unsure about doing so publicly. She recently decided that she was ready to take that step, in part to be a role model for her daughters, who are now teenagers.
“When you invade someone’s space, it doesn’t matter if they raped you, it’s sexual assault and it’s not okay,” he said. “You don’t touch someone unless they want to be touched. And I didn’t do anything to encourage him to touch me. “
Dorris said she was also frustrated to hear that Trump’s many other accusers were accused of lying. “I’m sick of him getting away with it,” she said. “I’m tired of being quiet. It’s a bit cathartic. I just want to get this out. And I want people to know that this is the man, this is our president. This is the kind of thing he does and it is unacceptable. “- Guardian
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