Donald Trump is accused of grabbing a married woman by her genitals at a New Year’s Eve Party at his club Mar-a-Lago in the early 2000s, while then-girlfriend Melania was upstairs.
Karen Johnson described being groped by the future president during the party at Trump’s club in Palm Beach, Florida, which she attended with her terminally-ill husband who was suffering from multiple sclerosis, and a relative.
The alleged incident took place before Trump became engaged on April 29, 2004 to Melania, then Melania Knauss. The pair were married on January 22, 2005.
Former dancer Johnson made the shocking accusation to authors Barry Levine and Monique El-Faizy in their upcoming book ‘All the President’s Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator’, an excerpt of which appeared in Esquire Wednesday.
She told them, ‘When he says that thing, ‘Grab them in the p****,’ that hits me hard because when he grabbed me and pulled me into the tapestry, that’s where he grabbed me.’
Donald Trump, with future wife Melania Knauss, seen from behind, at a New Year’s Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida on December 31, 2002. Karen Johnson says it was at this seaside club that Trump grabbed her by the genitals while Melania was upstairs
Donald Trump and his future wife Melania Knauss celebrate New Year’s Day on January 1, 2004 at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump and Melania became engaged on April 29, 2004.
Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump accuser Karen Johnson had used the estate for her wedding reception. Following the New Year’s Eve incident with Trump, she has refused to return
When he says that thing, ‘Grab them in the p****,’ that hits me hard because when he grabbed me and pulled me into the tapestry, that’s where he grabbed me.
Trump accuser Karen Johnson
Johnson said she had often visited the Palm Beach seaside club owned by Trump, which was close to her home, but had only met the future president once when she held her wedding reception there.
She said Trump ‘chased some of my bridesmaids around’ but Trump had been ‘nice’ to her.
Describing the New Year’s Eve party, Johnson said she had been dancing in a black Versace dress when, shortly after the stroke of midnight, her husband, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, said he was feeling unwell and the relative was also ready to go home.
Johnson, who was in her later thirties at the time, described the attack when she made a quick trip to the restroom before going home.
She said, ‘I hadn’t seen [Trump} that whole entire night. I was just walking to the bathroom. I was grabbed and pulled behind a tapestry, and it was him.
‘All the President’s Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator’ by Barry Levine and Monique El-Faizy is on sale on October 22
‘And I’m a tall girl and I had six-inch heels on, and I still remember looking up at him. And he’s strong, and he just kissed me.
‘I was so scared because of who he was…I don’t even know where it came from. I didn’t have a say in the matter.’
Johnson told the authors Trump then grabbed her hand and asked her to help him say goodbye to guests at the front door because Melania was upstairs.
Johnson explained she pretended nothing had happened. She said: ‘I was afraid to say what had happened. I didn’t even know how it happened.’
Johnson told the authors Trump began calling her for the next two weeks, offering to fly her up from Florida to New York to see him.
According to Johnson, when she explained she could not because she was taking care of her dying husband, Trump told her, ‘Don’t worry about it, he’ll never know you were gone.’
Johnson said, ‘He’d have me back by six o’clock. This was like crazy. He was going to fly me to New York for the day to see him. I said, ‘No, no, no.’
According to the book, Trump persisted and even offered to send a car to bring Johnson to Mar-a-Lago.
Johnson again refused, telling the authors, ‘I was scared. I didn’t know what to do.’
Johnson said, following the incident, she never returned to Mar-a-Lago. She did reveal to the relative who had been with her what Trump did, but she said she never told her dying husband.
Celebrity reporter A.J. Benza told the book authors Trump had begged model Kara Young, pictured with him in April 1998, to marry him shortly before he began dating Melania. Benza said Young turned Trump down
She explained her reluctance to come forward, telling the authors, ‘I feared that because I had been a dancer many years before they would say to me, ‘Well, you must have asked for it.
‘What he did was very traumatizing to me. And it still is. You know, I didn’t ask for that. I was literally just walking through a room…no matter what my past is I don’t deserve to be treated that way.
‘This is about a monster, an immature child running around who has no respect for anybody but himself and his giant ego.’
Trump has publicly faced allegations from two dozen women.
The book claims to reveal 43 allegations of alleged inappropriate behavior, including 26 instances of unwanted sexual contact.
It also claims another incident where Trump cheated on then-girlfriend Melania.
Celebrity reporter A.J. Benza also spoke to the authors and revealed Trump had asked model Kara Young to marry him, even though they had been dating for less than a year, beginning in 1998.
Young, who had an infant son from her first marriage, turned the property tycoon down.
Benza, who had also dated Young, told the authors, ‘I do know he wouldn’t take no for an answer for a while. And he made numerous attempts.’
A source close to Young told the authors that Trump wanted to remain close to Young, despite having begun to also date Melania.
The source said, ‘Melania came home and saw [what was] not her makeup on a bathroom towel. She flipped out. A big fight ensued. They flew her [Melania] back to Mar-a-Lago.’
The authors describe how Melania and Trump split up for several months before reconciling.
‘All the President’s Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator’ by Barry Levine and Monique El-Faizy, published by Hachette Press, is on sale on October 22.