A former staff on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign team has accused him of sexual assault. Alva Johnson said Trump kissed her without her consent outside a rally in Florida in August 2016. She told Washington Post:
I immediately felt violated because I wasn’t expecting it or wanting it.
I can still see his lips coming straight for my face.
Johnson told the Post she turned her head to avoid the unwanted kiss, which landed on the side of her mouth and felt “super-creepy and inappropriate.” The allegation is described in a federal lawsuit filed Monday in Florida, in which Johnson is seeking unspecified damages for emotional pain and suffering, according to the Post.
Alva alleged in the lawsuit that Trump grabbed her hand and tried to kiss her on the lips as he exited an RV outside the Tampa rally on Aug. 24, 2016. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed Johnson’s accusation, calling it “absurd on its face.”
Sanders said in a statement:
This never happened and is directly contradicted by multiple highly credible eye witness accounts.
In the lawsuit, Johnson, who is black, also alleges that Trump’s campaign discriminated against her by paying her less than her white colleagues. Trump’s campaign has denied the accusation.
Over 21 women have accused Trump of various instances of sexual misconduct between the early 1980s and mid-2000s. He has vehemently denied the allegations.