‘Groping Trump shoved his tongue down my throat in US Open VIP box’
Ex-model says he attacked her when she was 24
A FORMER model says Donald Trump sexually assaulted her when she was a guest at his VIP box at the US Open tennis tournament.
Amy Dorris, who was 24 at the time, accused the US President of forcing his tongue down her throat while holding her so she could not escape.
Miss Dorris said she felt ‘sick’ and ‘violated’ by the alleged incident, which she said took place by the toilet in his private box in 1997.
She claims that the next day at Trump Tower, the future President – who was married to his second wife Marla Maples at the time – asked Miss Dorris: ‘Could you see yourself living here?’
The claims have put Mr Trump’s treatment of women back into the spotlight with seven weeks to go until the US election. About two dozen women have previously alleged that the President sexually assaulted or raped them. He has always denied any wrongdoing.
His 2016 presidential campaign was nearly derailed when he was recorded bragging that he liked to ‘grab women by the p****’. But each time Mr Trump has somehow survived even if his poll ratings among women have suffered.
Miss Dorris, a 47-year-old mother-of-two from Florida, has backed up her claims with numerous photographs of her and Mr Trump from her trip to New York in September 1997.
They show her standing next to him in a VIP box and also sitting next to him and her then-boyfriend Jason Binn, who was a friend of Mr Trump and had brought her on the trip, at the side of the court.
In an interview with The Guardian, Miss Dorris said the assault happened when she went into the bathroom of Mr Trump’s box to fix her contact lens. When she came out, Mr Trump, then 51, was at the door. She thought he wanted to use the toilet, but he then allegedly lunged, prompting her to say: ‘No, get away.’ She said: ‘He just shoved his tongue down my throat and I was pushing him off. And then that’s when his grip became tighter and his hands were very gropey and all over my butt, my breasts, my back, everything. I was in his grip, and I couldn’t get out of it, I don’t know what you call that when you’re sticking your tongue just down someone’s throat. But I pushed it out with my teeth. I was pushing it.
‘And I think I might have hurt his tongue’. According to Miss Dorris she said, ‘No, please stop’ but Mr Trump ‘didn’t care’. She said: ‘I just kind of was in shock. 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.’
Miss Dorris cannot recall if she told her boyfriend Mr Binn the full details of the alleged assault, but she says she asked him to tell Mr Trump to leave her alone.
She said she told Mr Binn: ‘He’s all over me. I can’t deal with this. You have to do something.’
The following day the couple were due to return to Mr Trump’s box at the US Open and Miss Dorris wore a conservative dress to discourage him.
They stopped by Trump Tower where they met celebrities who were also heading to the tennis including musicians Lenny Kravitz and Puff Daddy. Mr Trump continued to pursue her, apparently suggesting they begin a relationship by saying: ‘Could you see yourself living here?’
Later they were joined in Mr Trump’s box by more VIP guests, including Leonardo DiCaprio and the illusionist David Blaine. Asked why she went to Trump Tower after such an incident, Miss Dorris said that she was on the trip with Mr Binn and didn’t have any choice.
She said: ‘People spend years around people who have abused them, that’s what happens when something traumatic happens, you freeze.’
Miss Dorris said she thought about coming forward in 2016 but decided to stay quiet. She changed her mind because she wanted to be a role model to her teenage daughters. She said: ‘I’m sick of him getting away with this.
‘I’m tired of being quiet. It’s kind of cathartic. I just want to get this out. And I want people to know that this is the man, this is our President. This is the kind of thing he does and it’s unacceptable.’
Mr Binn did not return requests for comment. Mr Trump’s lawyers strongly denied Miss Dorris’s claims and said if he had done anything in the VIP box there would have been witnesses.