Earlier this week, LawNewz.com reported exclusively about a $125 million lawsuit filed against Donald Trump alleging he had sexually assaulted a beauty pageant producer in the 1990s. Last week, the plaintiff, Jill Harth, told us she was under pressure to file the lawsuit and “the allegations were twisted and embellished.” She withdrew the suit less than a month after filing it. But now, according to a report in the Guardian following up on our coverage, Harth is apparently standing by her initial complaint. When asked by the Guardian whether she stood by the accusations detailed in the 12-page lawsuit, Harth reportedly texted the reporter back, “Yes.”
LawNewz.com obtained an exclusive copy of the 1997 lawsuit which had been buried deep in a federal archive warehouse in Missouri. Harth, who was in her early 30’s at the time, alleged that Trump engaged in hostile and offensive sexual behavior towards her from 1992 to 1997 including “groping” her under her dress on several occasions, “forcibly” moving her to his daughter Ivanka’s bedroom in an attempt to have sex with her, and repeatedly, aggressively and inappropriately propositioning her for sex.
Harth says she met Trump while she and her then boyfriend (and now ex-husband) George Houraney organized international model search events in the early 1990’s. Among the allegations, Harth alleged that on January 24th 1993 while at Trump’s estate in Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida the following happened:
After Trump business associates left, the defendant (Trump) over the plaintiff’s objections forcibly prevented plaintiff from leaving and forcibly removed plaintiff to a bedroom, whereupon defendant (Trump) subjected plaintiff to defendant’s unwanted sexual advances, which included touching of plaintiff’s private parts in an act constituting attempted “rape”
The timing of the lawsuit and its withdrawal is interesting because at around the same time, in July of 1997, Trump reportedly agreed to a six figure settlement with Harth’s former husband over a breach-of-contract lawsuit.
When asked about Harth’s assault allegations, Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s counsel, told LawNewz.com, “There is no truth to it. Unfortunately, Jill was a pawn in a lawsuit that was created by her ex-husband. ” However, now Harth reportedly seems to be standing by her claims. Cohen said he was unaware of the details of the settlement agreement.
But Harth’s new comment to The Guardian, which differed from what she told us, could add an interesting wrinkle into an old case about a new presidential candidate.
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