As Donald Trump Tries to Silence Women, a 12th Accuser Comes Forward

Laaksonen says Trump groped her when they were posing for a picture along with that year's Miss Puerto Rico, Miss Colombia, and Miss Australia. "Trump stood right next to me and suddenly he squeezed my butt," Laaksonen told Ilta-Sanomat, according to an English translation published in the Telegraph last week. "He really grabbed my butt. I don't think anybody saw it but I flinched and thought, 'What is happening?'

"Somebody told me there that Trump liked me because I looked like Melania when she was younger," she continued. "It left me disgusted."

The pageant queen is the latest of several woman to claim that Trump sexually assaulted her. Right before the second presidential debate in October, the Washington Post published a hot mic recording in which the GOP brags about his ability to grope women because he's a "star." During the debate, the moderators pressed him about the comments, but Trump dismissed their accusations, saying his words had been harmless "locker room talk."

"Just for the record," Anderson Cooper asked the Republican nominee at the debate, "are you saying … that you did not actually kiss women without their consent?"

"I have not," Trump pledged.

But numerous women who claim differently have since called him out. The first two women came forward in the New York Times a few days after the debate. One of them, Jessica Leeds, told the paper that as she watched Trump say that he had never kissed someone or grabbed their genitals without their permission, she was overwhelmed with anger. Leeds, now 74, said that Trump had once groped her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt while she was sitting next to him on a flight. "He was like an octopus," she told the Times. "His hands were everywhere."

Rachel Crooks, who also spoke to the Times, was similarly emboldened to tell her story immediately after the debate. In 2005, when she was 22 and employed at a real estate company located in Trump Tower in Manhattan, she says she had an uncomfortable run-in with the building's namesake. Crooks told the publication that she attempted to introduce herself to Trump while they were both waiting for the elevator. She says they shook hands, but Trump turned the business interaction into an occasion to kiss her on the cheek and then "directly on the mouth."

"It was so inappropriate," she said. "I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that."

In the following days, more women decided to talk, for first time, about the way Trump has treated them. People writer Natasha Stoynoff said the candidate forced himself on her during a 2005 interview that took place at Mar-a-lago, Trump's Palm Beach estate, while Trump's pregnant wife was right upstairs. "We walked into [a] room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us," Stoynoff wrote in People. "I turned around, and within seconds he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat."

Mindy McGillivray came forward after the debate as well. She said that while she was working as a photographer's assistant during a Ray Charles concert at the Mar-a-Lago hotel, Trump assaulted her. McGillivray says she was standing with a group of people—which included her photographer friend, Trump, and his then-fiancee Melania—after the show, waiting to meet the singer. Then she felt something at her backside.

"All of a sudden I felt a grab, a little nudge. I think it's Ken's camera bag, that was my first instinct. I turn around and there's Donald. He sort of looked away quickly. I quickly turned back, facing Ray Charles, and I'm stunned,'' she recounted to the Palm Beach Post.

McGillivray told the publication that while she was watching the debate she flashed back to that moment 13 years ago. She said she rose from her chair and screamed at her TV: "'You liar!'''

The same day, Buzzfeed News reported that group of underage Miss Teen USA contestants claimed that Trump walked into their dressing room while they were changing. According to the outlet, 11 other contestants claim that they do not remember the incident happening, and 35 could not be reached. But the five women that came forward say they remember Trump walked in on them while they were naked and they were "shocked."

"I remember putting on my dress really quick because I was like, 'Oh my god, there's a man in here,'" former Miss Vermont Teen USA, Mariah Billado, told the publication.

Within the next 48 hours, Kristen Anderson would tell the Washington Post that she was sitting in a nightclub, talking to friends, when a man next to her slid his hands up her miniskirt. Anderson said she got up abruptly, but before she left she said recognized that the man was Donald Trump. "He was so distinctive looking—with the hair and the eyebrows. I mean, nobody else has those eyebrows," she told the publication.

We then learned about a woman named Cathy Heller, who said she was also assaulted at Mar-a-lago when she was there with her family for a Mother's Day brunch in 1997. Trump was making the rounds to each table, and Heller says she extended her hand to greet him when he got to hers. "He took my hand, and grabbed me, and went for the lips," she told the Guardian on October 16.

Allegedly, Trump's abuse extended to the women on his reality show as well. Summer Zervos, a contestant on the fifth season of The Apprentice, says that Trump took advantage of her when she was visiting New York from California. In a press conference held on October 14 by her attorney, Gloria Allred, she said that she agreed to a meeting with the business man because she "continued to see him as a possible mentor and a potential employer" after leaving the reality show. After vaguely offering her a job, she says Trump kissed her on mouth to both to greet her and say goodbye, which she initially dismissed it as simply an odd formality.

However, when Zervos went to meet him again for what she thought was a business dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel, she was led to his private bungalow. She says she walked into the suite, confused about what was going on, and sat down in the living room. "I waited for about 15 minutes until Mr. Trump emerged. He had his suit on. I stood up and he came to me and started kissing me open-mouthed as he was pulling me toward him," she said. "I walked away and I sat down in a chair. He was in a low seat across from me and I made an attempt at conversation. He then asked me to sit next to him. I complied. He then grabbed my shoulder and started kissing me again very aggressively and placed his hand on my breast."

She says she got away again but Trump kept trying to coerce her into the bungalow's bedroom. After she made several more attempts to escape, she claims Trump mocked her and thrusted his genitals at her. When she was finally able to get Trump to allow her to leave the bungalow for the hotel dining room, Zervos says they discussed business and real estate, which left her wondering "if the sexual behavior was some kind of test or whether or not I had passed."

A yoga instructor represented by Allred, Karena Virginia, said that Trump blatantly grabbed one of her breasts at a US Open tournament in 1998. And adult actress Jessica Drake said that she, too, had been on the receiving end of the blustering real estate investor's unwanted advances. Drake, who is also represented by Allred, says Trump kissed her on the lips when she first met him and then offered her $10,000 to see him again. She declined.

Even before the 2005 recording came to light, several beauty queens had already opened up about the creepy behavior they experienced when Trump hosted Miss USA pageants, which he owned from 2002 to 2015. Cassandra Searles, Miss Washington USA 2013, claimed in a June Facebook post that Trump treated the contestants "like cattle."

"Do y'all remember that one time we had to do our onstage introductions, but this one guy treated us like cattle and made us do it again because we didn't look him in the eyes?" she wrote. "Do you also remember when he then proceeded to have us lined up so he could get a closer look at his property? Oh I forgot to mention that guy will be in the running to become the next President of the United States. I love the idea of having a misogynist as the President."

A former Miss Utah, Temple Taggart, who is now represented by Allred, told the New York Times back in May that Trump kissed her on the lips without her consent during when she was a 21-year-old contestant in the Miss USA 1997 pageant. She repeated the claim once Trump's pussy grabbing comments were made public, elaborating to NBC News that she thought the kiss was simply an "easy coast greeting" at first, though she was later disturbed when he kissed her again during a meeting at Trump Tower.

Trump has denied all the allegations against him, criticizing Stoynoff's physical appearance and claiming that his accusers are politically motivated. When asked at the final presidential debate to respond to the allegations he said, "No one has more respect for women than I do." Trump has also said he will sue all of his accusers.

Advocates and sexual assault survivors counter that this is just another way he is perpetuating violence against women. "I felt like Mr. Trump was trying to silence all of his accusers who had come forward, as well as others who might be thinking of coming forward," Taggart said in a press conference following Trump's threats. "Enough is enough. I feel like he is trying to bully and frighten us into silence. Mr. Trump, that is not going to work with me… I'm not afraid of you, Mr. Trump. If you carry out your threat to sue me, I will defend myself."

In an email to Broadly, Allred confirmed that none of her clients are seeking legal action against Trump at this time. It appears that the women's rights lawyer is currently focused on just making sure women's voices are heard. Allred has said, in a statement following Trump's remark at the debate, that Trump's denials are "indicative of disrespect and the height of arrogance and entitlement."

"The women that have come forward deserve tremendous respect for having had the courage to speak truth to power," she continued. "They will continue to speak out and be heard, and we are proud of each and every one of them."