[56] A July investigation by The Guardian said that the lawsuits appeared to be organized by Norm Lubow, "who has been associated in the past with a range of disputed claims involving celebrities including OJ Simpson and Kurt Cobain.

[64][65][66][67][68] Since government employees largely enjoy immunity from defamation suits, the Justice Department argued that Trump had spoken in his official capacity as president.

[95] On March 14, 2019, a New York appeals court rejected President Trump's argument that the Constitution makes him immune from state lawsuits, clearing the way for a defamation suit.

On February 25, 2019, Alva Johnson filed a lawsuit against Trump, alleging he had forcibly kissed her at a rally in Florida in August 2016 while she was working on his 2016 presidential campaign.

[103] According to an interview with Teen Vogue, Johnson decided to stop working for the Trump campaign after the media started covering the Access Hollywood tape.

For the article, Times reporters Michael Barbaro and Megan Twohey conducted 50 interviews with women who had known Trump socially, during their professional career, or while modeling or competing for a beauty pageant title.

[47] Their accounts—many relayed here in their own words—reveal unwelcome romantic advances, unending commentary on the female form, a shrewd reliance on ambitious women, and unsettling workplace conduct, according to the interviews, as well as court records and written recollections.

Laura Kirilova Chukanov, a Bulgarian immigrant and 2009 Miss USA pageant contestant, said Trump helped her make connections for a documentary she was working on about her home country.

An aspiring model at the time of the alleged incident, Anderson told the story to her friends, and decided to come forward after reading accounts of other women who had done so.

[31] McDowell told her story initially to The New York Times in May 2016[142] which was published in the "Crossing the Line: How Donald Trump Behaved With Women in Private" article.

[47] She had not intended to speak publicly about the incidents again, but she received numerous calls recently due to the "Crossing the Line" article and felt, as a mother, that it is essential to share a message about unwanted advances: "You have the right to say no.

At an October 2016 press conference with attorney Gloria Allred, yoga instructor and life coach Karena Virginia said that in 1998 Trump grabbed her arm and touched her breast.

[31] Stoynoff responded that she had become angry when Trump denied assaulting women during the presidential debate and was triggered by the release of the Access Hollywood recording in early October.

Drake, an adult film actress and sex education advocate, said she met Trump at her company's booth during a charity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe in 2006.

Shortly thereafter, Drake claims she received phone calls from Trump or his associate, requesting that she join him in his suite for $10,000, and offering to fly her on his jet back to Los Angeles.

[169][170][171] Laaksonen revealed her account to a local Finnish tabloid, Ilta-Sanomat, which had contacted her regarding the level of professionalism involved in Donald Trump's handling of his employees within the Miss Universe pageant.

[31] On October 25, 2016, allegations were made by two men stating that Trump had attended and partaken in sex parties filled with underage minor females as young as 15 years old who were induced with promises of career advancement.

On October 14, 2016, Samantha Carol Holvey, Miss North Carolina USA 2006, related that "Trump's conduct was 'creepy' around the women participating but he never made an advance toward her."

The plaintiff, who had filed anonymously as Jane Doe, was scheduled to appear in a Los Angeles press conference six days before the 2016 election, but abruptly canceled the event; her lawyer Lisa Bloom asserted that the woman had received threats.

[190][191][192] Trump invited NBC News to film a party he threw for himself and Epstein at Mar-a-Lago, where they joined various NFL cheerleaders; the kiss incident occurred there.

"[197][198] Shaun R. Harper, executive director of the Penn Graduate Center for Education, has said that "many men talk like Donald Trump"; objectifying women and saying offensive things about them.

[205][f] He declared "this is a conspiracy against you, the American people", saying "the Washington establishment and the financial and media corporations that fund it exist for only one reason: to protect and enrich itself" and that "the Clinton machine is at the center of this power structure.

To reach back decades in an attempt to smear Mr. Trump trivializes sexual assault, and it sets a new low for where the media is willing to go in its efforts to determine this election.

It is absurd to think that one of the most recognizable business leaders on the planet with a strong record of empowering women in his companies would do the things alleged in this story, and for this to become public only decades later in the final month of a campaign for president should say it all.

'"[228] Susan Dominus, writing for The New York Times Magazine, hoped this backlash against Trump would lead more people to believe women's stories in the future.

[229] The Washington Times online opinion editor and Fox News contributor Monica Crowley said in October 2016 that the accusations come across as a "classical political hit job" on Trump.

"[232] Fox News Media analyst Howard Kurtz wrote in a column that it was "possible to find the allegations troubling while also questioning their timing and whether it's no accident that the women are breaking their silence a month before the election.

"[231] The day after The New York Times reported the allegations, First Lady Michelle Obama delivered a widely praised speech on women's experiences of sexism and sexually predatory behavior.

[233][234][235] Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post said the speech "will go down as one of the most important of this political cycle, a moment in which she crystallized the feelings of many women in the wake of the Trump tape".

[240] In 2021, Andrew Prokop argued in an article for Vox that Trump calculated that his populist appeal and cult of personality would make Republican Party elites afraid to cross him, allowing him to weather the allegations.