A girl who says Donald Trump silently molested her on an airliner within the late Seventies testified Tuesday in help of the author who alleges {that a} flirtatious 1996 encounter with the long run president resulted in a violent sexual assault.
Jessica Leeds, 81, of Asheville, North Carolina, stated Trump accosted her with what appeared like “40 zillion fingers.” She joined different witnesses who supported the testimony of E. Jean Carroll, a longtime recommendation columnist who publicly aired her claims in opposition to Trump in 2019, when she revealed a memoir. Trump has repeatedly denied the claims, saying Carroll lied to promote books and disparage him.
The witnesses had been meant to help Carroll’s testimony over three days ending Monday that Trump raped her within the dressing room of a luxurious division retailer in midtown Manhattan.
Lisa Birnbach, a longtime good friend of Carroll, testified that an emotional and hyperventilating Carroll telephoned her minutes after her encounter with Trump to report what occurred. She stated she instructed Carroll that Carroll had been raped and urged her to go to the police, however Carroll refused, main them to argue earlier than Birnbach agreed by no means to talk of it once more.
Leeds stated she was in her late 30s and dealing in gross sales when she was invited by a flight attendant aboard a daytime flight from Dallas or Atlanta to New York to take a seat in the one empty aisle seat within the first-class cabin.
“The gentleman sitting by the window launched himself as Donald Trump,” she stated.
Dialog between the pair was largely forgettable, Leeds recalled, as they ate a pleasant meal, earlier than “swiftly Trump determined to kiss me and grope me.”
“There was no dialog. It was like out of the blue. It was like a tussle. He was attempting to kiss me, attempting to tug me in the direction of him. He was grabbing my breasts. It was like he had 40 zillion fingers. It was like a tussling match between the 2 of us,” she recalled.
Leeds stated the standoff ended when she realized no plane staff had been coming to the rescue and Trump appeared to get extra aggressive.
“It was when he began placing his hand up my skirt that gave me power. I managed to wriggle out of my seat and storm again to my seat in coach. I do not assume there was a phrase or a sound made by both of us,” she recalled.
Requested to explain how lengthy the encounter took, Leeds stated “it appeared like ceaselessly, but it surely most likely was only a few seconds.”
When the aircraft landed, Leeds recalled, she remained on the aircraft till everybody else had left to keep away from working into Trump once more.
Leeds admitted in courtroom that she is politically lively. A Democrat dwelling in North Carolina, she has donated to candidates together with Sen. Raphael Warnock and Stacey Abrams, however to not Trump’s 2016 presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton. Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina, throughout cross examination requested if Leeds had instructed her story when Trump ran for president within the hope that it might affect the election in opposition to him. Leeds stated she had achieved so and later stated that she doesn’t need him to regain the presidency.
The previous president won’t be showing in courtroom on this case, Tacopina knowledgeable the choose Tuesday. He stated that the protection plans to name one witness nearly Thursday afternoon. Carroll’s authorized staff has a number of extra witnesses to name to the stand, together with Carroll’s sister, Sweet Carroll.
The Related Press usually doesn’t title individuals who say they’ve been sexually assaulted until they arrive ahead publicly, as Carroll and Leeds have achieved.
Clare Hymes contributed to this report.
