Home ›› 18 Sep 2020 ›› World Biz
A former model has come forward to accuse US President Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her at the US Open tennis tournament more than two decades ago, in an alleged incident that left her feeling 'sick' and 'violated'.
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Amy Dorris alleged that Trump accosted her outside the bathroom in his VIP box at the tournament in New York on 5 September 1997.
Dorris, who was 24 at the time, accuses Trump of forcing his tongue down her throat, assaulting her all over her body and holding her in a grip she was unable to escape from.
Via his lawyers, Trump denied in the strongest possible terms having ever harassed, abused or behaved improperly toward Dorris.
Dorris, who lives in Florida, provided the Guardian with evidence to support her account of her encounters with Trump, including her ticket to the US Open and six photos showing her with the real estate magnate over several days in New York. Trump was 51 at the time and married to his second wife, Marla Maples.
Her account was also corroborated by several people she confided in about the incident. They include a friend in New York and Dorris’s mother, both of whom she called immediately after the alleged incident, as well as a therapist and friends she spoke to in the years since. All said Dorris had shared with them details of the alleged incident that matched what she later told the Guardian.
Dorris, now 48 and a mother to twin daughters, said she had considered speaking publicly about the incident in 2016 when several women made public similar accusations against the then-Republican candidate for president. But she decided against coming forward, in part because she thought that doing so might harm her family.
“Now I feel like my girls are about to turn 13 years old and I want them to know that you don’t let anybody do anything to you that you don’t want,” she said. “And I’d rather be a role model. I want them to see that I didn’t stay quiet, that I stood up to somebody who did something that was unacceptable.”
Dorris said she spent several days with Trump in September 1997 after being taken to New York for a long weekend by her then-boyfriend, Jason Binn. At the time, Dorris was living with friends in Boca Raton, Florida, regularly travelling to Miami for modelling and occasional acting work. Binn, the founder of several luxury fashion and lifestyle magazines, was a friend of Trump; in 1999, he reportedly described the real estate businessman as his “best friend”.
On Friday 5 September, Dorris said Binn took her to meet Trump at his office in Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan before they went together to the US Open in Queens.
“He came on very strong right away,” Dorris said of Trump. “It seemed typical of a certain guy, people who just feel like they’re entitled to do what they want … even though I was there with my boyfriend.”
The couple were joined by other friends of Trump in his private box, a luxury carpeted suite that had a balcony overlooking the court. Photos from the day show Dorris alongside Trump and his friend Marylou Whitney.
Dorris said the alleged assault occurred when she got up to go to the bathroom, which was hidden behind a partition wall just metres from where Trump’s guests were watching the tennis. “I was having some issues with my contact lenses,” she said. “I remember going in there to moisten my lens.”
When she came out, she alleges, Trump was waiting outside. “Initially I thought that he was waiting to go to the bathroom, but that wasn’t the case, unfortunately,” she said. She alleges Trump forced himself on her after a brief exchange in which she recalls nervously laughing and telling him: “No, get away.”
She alleged she told Trump “no, please stop” but “he didn’t care”. “It doesn’t matter who you are,” she said. “Any time anyone says no, no means no. And that just didn’t work out for me. It wasn’t enough.”
“I just kind of was in shock,” she added. “I felt violated, obviously. But I still wasn’t processing it and just was trying to go back to talking to everyone and having a good time because, I don’t know, I felt pressured to be that way.”
Dorris cannot recall if she told Binn the full details of the alleged assault, but she says she asked him to tell Trump to leave her alone. She said she told Binn: “He’s all over me. I can’t deal with this. You have to do something.”
Binn did not respond to a request for comment, reports The Guardian. However, according to Trump’s lawyers, Binn told them he had no recollection of Dorris telling him that anything inappropriate had happened with Trump or that she felt uncomfortable around him.
Dorris said that soon after the alleged incident, she phoned a friend who lived in the city and told them what had happened. “I think I just felt safe knowing that I had someone in New York that I could go to, God forbid it got worse,” she said.
She said Trump did not seriously assault her again during her stay in New York, but that he continued to pursue her despite her firm rejection of his advances.
