Trump accuser said she ‘laughed out loud’ when she heard him again deny her assault allegation

By Jack Forrest and Kara Scannell, CNN

(CNN) — Jessica Leeds, who previously accused Donald Trump of sexual assault and was a trial witness in a high-profile case against the former president, said Monday that she “laughed out loud” when she heard he recently disputed her allegation and said she “would not have been the chosen one.”

“I laughed out loud. I couldn’t believe that he was using that word like some sort of cult figure,” Leeds told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on “AC360.”

Leeds was one of the first women to come forward during the 2016 presidential campaign to allege that Trump sexually assaulted her. She said she was seated in first class on an airplane next to Trump in the 1970s when he suddenly began groping her. Leeds said she fought off Trump and moved to the back of the airplane.

“I was not the first, of course I was not the last. But there have been enough so that he doesn’t remember,” Leeds told Cooper Monday.

Asked about Leeds’ comments, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung again denied Trump had ever met Leeds and said that “whatever fable she’s trying to peddle is only meant to interfere in the election and distract from” Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival.

Leeds had been called to testify during Trump’s sexual abuse and defamation trial last year brought by E. Jean Carroll, who accused the former president of assaulting her in a luxury department store dressing room in the spring of 1996. She was one of two women Carroll’s lawyers called to allege Trump had a modus operandi of sexually assaulting women and then attacking their appearance and credibility when the allegations became public.

A jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation when in 2019 he denied Carroll’s allegation, said she wasn’t his type, and claimed that she made up the assault to sell copies of a book. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages.

Trump is appealing the verdict.

During oral arguments before a panel of judges on Friday, Trump’s attorneys questioned the admissibility of Leeds’ testimony, claiming it wasn’t a federal crime in the 1970s to sexually abuse a woman on an airplane. Carroll’s lawyer said “simple assault” was illegal on an airplane at the time.

Trump, following the hearing, lashed out at Leeds and several other women who have accused him of sexual assault, saying her claim was a “totally made up story” and said she was a “big Clinton person.”

“Now, I assume she’ll sue me now for defamation, like I got sued by E. Jean Carroll,” the former president said.

Leeds, addressing reporters at a news conference in front of Trump Tower earlier Monday, said that “it’s important to remind the voters of Trump’s disrespect of women,” adding: “He assaulted me 50 years ago and continues to attack me today.”

Asked by Cooper whether she’ll pursue legal action against Trump related to his latest comments, Leeds said that “we’re leaving all of our options open.”

“But no, my goal when I was asked to testify at E. Jean’s trial was to establish that this is his behavior, longstanding, and I have nothing to gain from it,” she said.

Earlier this year a separate jury found Trump defamed Carroll when in 2022 he repeated several of the statements he initially made in 2019. The jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million. Her attorneys argued to the jury that the only way to stop Trump from repeating the statements was to hit him in his pocketbook.

CNN’s Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.

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