Another woman has accused Republican nominee Donald Trump of groping her.
Karena Virginia, a yoga instructor and life coach, told reporters Thursday that Trump touched her breast at the 1998 U.S. Open in Flushing, Queens.
Virginia said she had been waiting for a car to pick her up when she saw Trump with a few other men. She knew who he was, but had never met him, she said.
“He said, ‘Hey, look at this one, we haven’t seen her before. Look at those legs,’ ” she said.
Trump then walked over to her, grabbed her arm and touched her breast, Virginia said.
“ ‘Don’t you know who I am?’ That’s what he said to me,” she added.
Virginia said she was 27 years old at the time.
“I felt intimidated, and I felt powerless,” Virginia said. “I felt ashamed that I was wearing a short dress and high heels. That feeling of shame stayed with me for a while, and it made me disinclined to wear short dresses or high heels.”
Virginia made the accusation at a new conference at the London Hotel in Manhattan with her lawyer Gloria Allred.
Trump has been similarly accused by several women after he denied ever touching or kissing women without their consent during the Oct. 9 presidential debate. Two days earlier, a 2005 video and audio tape of Trump bragging about groping women had become public.
Trump has denied all the allegations and has accused Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign of being behind the accusations.
“Discredited political operative Gloria Allred, in another coordinated, publicity seeking attack with the Clinton campaign, will stop at nothing to smear Mr. Trump,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Jessica Ditto said. “Give me a break. Voters are tired of these circus-like antics and reject these fictional stories and the clear efforts to benefit Hillary Clinton.”
Virginia said no one asked her to come forward with her story and she was advised not to speak up.
“I have been advised that Mr. Trump will call me a liar,” she said. “Or perhaps he will label me as just another ‘nasty woman,’ ” referencing Trump calling Clinton a “nasty woman” in the presidential debate Wednesday night.
But Virginia said she felt it was her duty to tell the truth. “Mr. Trump revealed his true character in his own words on tape which indicated that he felt entitled to grab women by their private parts,” she said. “We should, to paraphrase Maya Angelou, believe him.”
