According to Independent, during Donald Trump’s civil rape and defamation trial on Wednesday, journalist Natasha Stoynoff took the witness stand and recounted her alleged sexual assault by the former president in 2005. At the time, she was on assignment to cover his first wedding anniversary at Mar-a-Lago for People magazine. According to Stoynoff, Trump asked to show her a room at his Palm Beach club during a break in their interviews, and when they entered the room, he pushed her against the wall and started kissing her. The alleged assault only ended when a Mar-a-Lago butler walked in on them.
Stoynoff testified that she was left “flustered and in shock” by the incident and became emotional as she recounted her experience in court. Trump allegedly told her that they were going to have an affair, and as they walked back to meet Melania, Trump doted on his wife. Stoynoff went into “auto-pilot” mode and tried to pretend that the incident never happened while finishing the interviews.
“I hear the door shut behind me, by the time I turn around he has his hands on my shoulder, pushing me up against the wall and he starts kissing me.
“I gave (the butler) a ‘get me out of here look’,” Ms Stoynoff said. As they were walking back to meet Melania, Ms Stoynoff testified that Mr Trump told her: “You know we’re going to have an affair. Don’t forget what (his second wife Marla Maples) said, ‘best sex I ever had’.”
Although she told her former journalism professor and newsroom supervisor at People at the time, Stoynoff did not mention it to anyone more senior as she didn’t want to cause trouble for the magazine. It wasn’t until October 2016, when she wrote an article for People magazine, that she went public about the alleged incident.
Stoynoff said that she was “horrified” by the Access Hollywood tape that was released two weeks earlier, in which Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women. Trump stated that he “automatically” starts kissing women he’s attracted to, and “when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.” The tape emerged shortly before the 2016 presidential election and prompted Stoynoff to speak out.
During the trial, the jury was shown the Access Hollywood tape, and Stoynoff recounted how sick she felt watching Trump deny the allegations. She spoke to her editors at People about publishing her firsthand account, and she thought to herself, “you liar,” as Trump continued to deny the claims.
I actually thought to myself, ‘oh he does this to a lot of women’, it’s not just me, it’s not something I did. “The horrible part was I worried that because I did not say anything that at the time other women were hurt by him. So I had regret there. “I thought to myself, ‘you liar’. I just felt really upset that he was lying to the American people.”
Stoynoff had been assigned to the “Trump beat” in 2003 and had interviewed The Apprentice host about 10 times before the alleged assault. He had asked her out to dinner before but never forced himself on her until the incident at Mar-a-Lago.
