Former model alleges Trump put hand up her skirt; ‘Apprentice’ star says he groped, kissed her

Two more women came forward Friday with new allegations of sexual misconduct against Donald Trump, one a former model who says the Republican nominee once put his hand up her skirt and the second an “Apprentice” star who charges he kissed and groped her without consent.

In a televised press conference with star lawyer Gloria Allred Friday, “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos came forward with charges that during what she expected to be a business meeting with Trump, he forcibly kissed her, groped her breast and thrust his genitals toward her.

“He came to me and started kissing me open-mouthed as he was pulling me towards him,” Zervos said in the presser. “He then asked me to sit next to him. I complied. He then grabbed my shoulder and began kissing me again, very aggressively, and placed his hand on my breast.”

Later, attempting to repel his alleged advances, Zervos said, “I pushed his chest, put space between us and said, ‘Come on man, get real.’ He repeated my words back to me, ‘get real,’ as he began thrusting his genitals.”

Zervos appeared on Season 5 of Trump’s popular reality show, which aired in 2006, and was the first contestant to be “fired.” She said the alleged sex abuse took place in 2007 in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel and that she thought the meeting was to discuss a job with Trump.

Trump issued a statement Friday evening saying he “vaguely” remembered Zervos, but he denied the incident she described had happened and called the accusations “unfounded.”

“I never met her at a hotel or greeted her inappropriately a decade ago. That is not who I am as a person, and it is not how I’ve conducted my life,” he said.

Trump accused the media of “creating a theater of absurdity” and reporters of “throwing due diligence and fact-finding to the side” in publishing the varied accounts from accusers.

In an effort to further refute Zervos’ claims, the Trump campaign also put forward the statement of John Barry, a man it identified as a her first cousin, who said he was “bewildered” by her story and that she had previously had “nothing but glowing things to say” about him.

“I think Summer wishes she could still be on reality TV, and in an effort to get that back she’s saying all of these negative things about Mr. Trump.”

The candidate also attacked his accusers as “horrible liars” and sharply rebuked the media at a rally Friday in Greensboro, N.C., charging news outlets that ran stories of alleged sexual abuse were pushing an agenda to “elect crooked Hillary Clinton.”

Hours before that press conference, the Washington Post published an interview with former model Kristin Anderson, who said that Trump put his hand up her skirt and touched her vagina through her underwear one night in a Manhattan night club in the early 1990s.

Like several of the women who have come forward with claims of sexual misconduct by Trump, both Zervos and Anderson said they were compelled to share their stories after hearing Trump brag about sexually assaulting women on a now infamous 2005 hot mic recording in which he said he could “do anything” to women because of his celebrity status.

“The reason that I’m saying this now and not before — where I didn’t think it was consequential to talk about before — was basically the bus tape that is so disgusting, really,” Anderson said in a video interview with the Post. “I watched this woman who could’ve been me, it could’ve been anyone, walk in and shake his hand. And that was just nauseating because she has no idea what she’s walking into and what could possibly happen to her.”

Anderson, now 46 and working as a photographer in Southern California, was in her 20s and living in New York City to pursue a modeling career at the time when she says Trump, whom she had never met, pushed his hand up her miniskirt and touched her crotch.

These two stories move the tally of alleged incidents of Trump touching women without their consent to at least nine. They also emerged less than a week after the second presidential debate, during which Trump told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that he had never touched a woman without consent.

Trump defended his lewd remarks to then “Hollywood Access” host Billy Bush in the leaked 2005 hot mic tape (in which he brags about grabbing women “by the p****) as “locker room talk” and “just words,” however Anderson’s allegations suggest that he has, in fact, done exactly what he described in that conversation.

Zervos broke into tears during her press conference as she recalled her experience, saying that upon her father’s advice she decided to meet Trump at one of his golf courses the day after his alleged groping because she was still interested in getting a job with Trump’s organization.

A few days later, she says she was offered a job at the golf course for half of the salary she had been seeking. She called Trump, she said, to tell him she felt as if she had been penalized for not sleeping with him.

“Mr. Trump said he was golfing and could not discuss it at that time,” she said. “In a subsequent conversation about the job, Mr. Trump told me that I should never again use his private number and that if I wanted to reach him I should contact him through his office.”

Zervos said she was given “the runaround” and ultimately did not get a job within his organization.

Anderson said she felt the need to speak up after reading a story published in the New York Times in which Jessica Leeds told her story about Trump allegedly groping her on a New York-bound airplane and Natasha Stoynoff’s article in People magazine about him allegedly pushing her up against a wall and “forcing his tongue” down her throat.

“I was in a fortuitous position. I could just get up and move, but what if I hadn’t been,” Anderson said. “After that, I was like, ‘OK, you know what? Let me just back these girls up! You know, that’s not OK.”

Including these two new allegations, at least nine women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct: Leeds and Stoynoff’s claims are detailed above. Rachel Crooks told the New York Times Trump kissed her on the mouth outside an elevator at Trump Tower in 2005. Mindy McGillivray, in an interview with the Palm Beach Post, said he groped her at Mar-a-Lago in 2000. Cassandra Searles said he groped her buttocks in a hotel room, according to a report on the Washington local station K5 News. Temple Taggart said he kissed her on the lips at the Miss USA pageant in 1997, NBC News reported. And Jill Harth said he groped her in his daughter Ivanka’s bedroom in 1997, as reported in the Guardian over the summer.

At the time, Anderson said, she brushed off her encounter with Trump as inconsequential, but now knows it’s important to talk about it.

“If you’re letting someone stick his hand up your skirt who one, did not even introduce himself. You weren’t even speaking with them,” she said, “they’re sort of groping you on the side, on the fly, like you’re some sort of stuffed animal on the couch, that is really not OK.”

Allred said Trump’s view and treatment of women is particularly chilling because he is seeking the highest office in the country. She said the American people deserve better than a president who feels entitled to grope women.

“Donald, before you can become president of the United States, you must first learn how to treat women with respect,” Allred said. “Your words and your alleged actions convey the exact opposite. Your words alone as captured on tape are disgraceful and suggest a belief system that is far below the dignity of the office that you seek. The White House is not a locker room.”

Trump’s campaign has repeatedly denied the accusations that he has made unwanted sexual advances on women.