An Orange County woman who appeared on “The Apprentice” became the latest woman to come forward with accusations of sexual misconduct against Donald Trump Friday, saying the now-presidential candidate repeatedly kissed her on the lips and then groped her in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Trump has vehemently denied mistreating any women, saying recent reports of two women who came forward with accusations in a New York Times article and another in People magazine were fabrications. He also denied the allegations made Friday in Los Angeles by Summer Zervos.
At a news conference in the office of attorney Gloria Allred, Zervos said that after appearing on season five of Trump’s reality show, she arranged to meet with him in 2007 in his New York office in hopes of getting a job at his company.
“When I arrived he kissed me on the lips,” Zervos said. “I was surprised, but felt that perhaps that was just his form of greeting.”
She said Trump was complimentary to her during the meeting and that he would “love to have me work for him,” and told her he would contact her during an upcoming trip to Los Angeles.
“As I was about to leave he again kissed me on the lips,” she said. “This made me feel very nervous and embarrassed. This is not what I wanted or expected.”
She said she returned to Los Angeles, and Trump contacted her and asked her to meet him at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Trump’s security team met her at the hotel and led her to a bungalow, where she sat in the living room and waited for about 15 minutes until Trump entered the room.
“I stood up and he came to me and started kissing me open-mouthed as he was pulling me towards him. I walked away and I sat down on a chair. He was on a love seat across from me and I made an attempt at conversation.
He then asked me to sit next to him. I complied. He then grabbed my shoulder and began kissing me again very aggressively, and placed his hand on my breast. I pulled back and went to another part of the room. He then walked up, grabbed my hand and walked me into the bedroom.
I walked out. He then turned me around and said, `Let’s lay down and watch some telly telly.’ He put me in an embrace and I tried to push him away. I pushed his chest to put space between us and I said, `Come on man, get real.’ He repeated my words back to me, `Get real,’ as he began thrusting his genitals. He tried to kiss me again with my hand still on his chest and I said, `Dude you’re tripping right now,’ attempting to make it clear that I was not interested.”
She said Trump appeared to become angry, and as they waited for dinner, “he started saying that he did not think that I had ever known love or had been in love.”
After the dinner and some conversation about a job and Trump offering advice about getting out of her mortgage, he “abruptly said that he was tired and that he needed to go to bed.”
After meeting with him again at Trump’s golf club in Palos Verdes, and having subsequent conversations, the manager of the golf club eventually offered her a job at half the salary she had been seeking. Trump later dodged future conversations with her, she said.
“Mr. Trump, today I feel that you were interested in my only because you wanted to have a sexual relationship with me and for no other reason,” she said. “However, after hearing the released audio tapes and your denials during the debate I felt that I had to speak out about your behavior. You do not have the right to treat women as sexual objects just because you are a star.”
Zervos said she told her parents and a close friend about Trump’s behavior immediately after her meeting with him in New York. But she never came forward publicly with the accusations.
Allred said Zervos decided to come forward after the recent release of an audiotape of Trump’s sexually explicit comments about women during a conversation with “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush. Trump has apologized for those remarks, calling it a “locker room” conversation.
Allred also stressed that Zervos has not filed a lawsuit against Trump or sought any financial remuneration from him.
Zervos noted at the news conference that she is a registered Republican.
Trump issued a statement saying he “vaguely” remembers Zervos.
“To be clear, I never met her at a hotel or greeted her inappropriately a decade ago,” he said. “That is not who I am as a person and it is not how I’ve conducted my life. In fact, Ms. Zervos continued to contact me for help, emailing my office on April 14th of this year asking that I visit her restaurant in California.
Beyond that, the media is now creating a theater of absurdity that threatens to tear our democratic process apart and poison the minds of the American public,” he said. “When Gloria Allred is given the same weighting on national television as the president of the United States, and unfounded accusations are treated as fact, with reporters throwing due diligence and fact- finding to the side in a rush to file their stories first, it’s evident that we are truly living in a broken system.”
Zervos acknowledged during the news conference that she emailed Trump in April, saying she “felt the need to confront Mr. Trump and ask him to apologize to me for his behavior. I also though that he might have been embarrassed by his behavior and that this would provide him with an opportunity to clear the air. I had no idea about his behavior with other women at that time.”
