Breaking: Fmr. Staffer Suing Trump, Charges Non-Consensual Kiss, 'Credible Witnesses' Denying Story
A woman who worked on President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign claims that in a “super-creepy and inappropriate” incident, Trump tried to kiss her without her consent.
However, two witnesses cited by the woman disagreed with her account, and one said it “absolutely did not happen.”
On Monday, The Washington Post published an article detailing the claim from Alva Johnson, 43, as well as comments from women Johnson said were witnesses who contradicted her story.
In addition to talking to the Post about the alleged incident, Johnson has also filed a lawsuit.
Johnson claims Trump tried to kiss her on Aug. 24, 2016, just before a rally in Tampa, Florida.
Johnson’s claim is that Trump exited an RV, grabbed her hand, and tried to kiss her on the mouth. She said she turned to avoid the kiss.
“I immediately felt violated because I wasn’t expecting it or wanting it,” she said. “I can still see his lips coming straight for my face.”
She told the Post how the scene unfolded.
“Oh, my God, I think he’s going to kiss me,” she said. “He’s coming straight for my lips. So I turn my head, and he kisses me right on corner of my mouth, still holding my hand the entire time. Then he walks on out.”
Johnson said the incident still haunts her.
“I’ve tried to let it go,” she said. “You want to move on with your life. I don’t sleep. I wake up at 4 in the morning looking at the news. I feel guilty. The only thing I did was show up for work one day.”
The Post reported that Johnson told her boyfriend, mother and stepfather about the incident back in 2016. It also reported that in October 2016, she consulted a lawyer, who did not take her case.
Johnson said she tried to get jobs in the Trump administration, to no avail, but insisted those rejections were not her reason for the lawsuit.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders called Johnson’s claim “absurd on its face.”
“This never happened and is directly contradicted by multiple highly credible eye witness accounts,” she said in a statement, according to the Post.
Two women who Johnson said witnessed the incident — Karen Giorno, director of Trump’s Florida campaign, and Pam Bondi, who was the attorney general of Florida at the time — both said they never saw Trump kiss Johnson.
“Do I recall seeing anything inappropriate? One hundred percent no,” Bondi told the Post.
“I’m a prosecutor, and if I saw something inappropriate, I would have said something.”
Giorno called Johnson’s account “ridiculous,” and added “that absolutely did not happen.”
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