Woman claims Trump groped her in front of Jeffrey Epstein

A former model claimed in a CNN interview that she was groped by former President Donald Trump in the 1990s.

Stacey Williams says the incident occurred in 1993 after disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, with whom she said she was having a relationship at the time, brought her to a meeting with Trump at Trump Tower in New York City.

“The second him [Trump] “The man was in front of me, he was pulling me towards him and his hands were just on me and wouldn't let go,” Ms Williams told the station.

The Trump campaign has denied the claim, pointing out that the former model originally shared the story at an event called “Survivors for Kamala” in support of Trump's rival, Democratic White House candidate Kamala Harris.

“These allegations, announced in a Harris campaign call two weeks before the election, are clearly false,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

“It is obvious that this fake story was fabricated by the Harris campaign to distract from the deeply troubling and newly uncovered allegations that Second 'Gentleman' Doug Emhoff 'violently slapped' his ex-girlfriend.”

Doug Emhoff, Harris' husband, was accused by an ex-girlfriend of slapping her in 2012, the Daily Mail reports.

The BBC has not identified Emhoff's reported ex-girlfriend, who was granted anonymity by the Mail, or the veracity of her claim.

Emhoff denied the accusation through a spokesman. The Harris campaign did not respond to BBC requests for comment.

Ms. Williams said on CNN that Trump greeted her and his hands touched “the side of my breasts, my hips, back to my butt, back up… they were just on me the whole time,” while Epstein and the former president smiled and talked to each other.

She described it as “an out-of-body experience” and said she “frozen.”

Shortly after the alleged incident, Williams said she broke up with Epstein, who was arrested for sex crimes in 2019 and died by suicide while awaiting trial.

Since announcing his presidential candidacy in 2016, several women have accused Trump of sexual assault. He has repeatedly denied these claims.

In 2023, a civil jury found the Republican nominee for the White House guilty of sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll, a writer.