A former model has accused Donald Trump of groping and sexually touching her in an incident in Trump Tower in 1993. Stacey Williams, who said she met the former president through late Jeffrey Epstein, stressed that she believed the incident was a “twisted game” between the two men.
Williams worked as a professional model in the 1990s, and met Trump at a Christmas party back in 1992 after Epstein introduced him to her. Williams said that she and Epstein casually dated for a few months.
“It became very clear then that he and Donald were really, really good friends and spent a lot of time together,” Williams said, as reported by The Guardian.
The alleged incident
The alleged groping took place when Williams and Epstein stopped by to visit Trump at Trump Tower during a walk in the late winter or early spring of 1993. Williams, now 56, said that after they arrived, Trump greeted her and pulled her toward him before starting to grope her.
Williams alleged that Trump put his hands “all over my breasts,” and her waist and her buttocks. She said she froze as she was “deeply confused,” and even recalled seeing Trump and Epstein possibly smile at each other.
Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary for Donald Trump’s campaign, denied the allegations in a statement. The statement said in part, “These accusations, made by a former activist for Barack Obama and announced on a Harris campaign call two weeks before the election, are unequivocally false. It’s obvious this fake story was contrived by the Harris campaign.”
William claimed that later in 1993, Trump sent her agent a postcard via courier, an aerial view of Mar-a-Lago. It was seen by The Guardian, which reported that it was written in Trump’s handwriting, using what appeared to be the former president’s usual black Sharpie, “Stacey – Your home away from home. Love Donald”.
‘I felt shame and disgust’
Williams, a Pennsylvania native, previously shared parts of her allegations on social media. On Monday, October 21, she shared details about the alleged incident on a call organised by a group called Survivors for Kamala, which backs Kamala Harris. Also present in the Zoon call were actor Ashley Judd, law professor and academic Anita Hill, and others.
Williams said that after the alleged encounter, she left Trump Tower with Epstein, and she started to realise Epstein was getting angry at her. “Jeffrey and I left and he didn’t look at me or speak to me and I felt this seething rage around me, and when we got down to the sidewalk, he looked at me and just berated me, and said: Why did you do that?” she said on the Zoom call.
“He made me feel so disgusting and I remember being so utterly confused,” she added, adding that she felt like the alleged incident was part of a “twisted game.”
“I felt shame and disgust and as we went our separate ways, I felt this sensation of revisiting it, while the hands were all over me. And I had this horrible pit in my stomach that it was somehow orchestrated. I felt like a piece of meat,” Williams said in an interview with The Guardian.
Williams and Epstein eventually parted ways. However, she said that she did not know anything about his pattern of sexual abuse, which was later revealed.
Williams said she had not come forward in the past because she wanted to avoid negative attention and the backlash that other victims have faced. “I left the business,” she said. “I disappeared on purpose because I love being anonymous and I love my life of being a private citizen. Then I watched what has happened to women who come out and it is so horrifying and abusive. The thought of doing that, especially as a mother with a child in my house, was just not possible.”
“I just chose in my own way – comments on social media to contradict people who said he didn’t do anything,” she added.
Two of Williams’ friends confirmed that she had told them about the groping in the past. While she shared her ordeal with one friend in 2005 or 2006, she narrated the incident to another longtime friend, Ally Gutwillinger, in 2015.
Gutwillinger said that she remembers the timing as Trump had just announced that he was running for president at the time. “I went to her house sometime in that week and I saw a postcard of Mar-a-Lago and I said: ‘What’s this?’ and she said ‘Turn it over,’” Gutwillinger said. “She said something like: ‘He’s vile, he groped me in Trump Tower.’”
