Donald Trump accused of sexual assault by model at US Open tennis in 1997
Former model accuses Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her at US Open tennis in 1997 and claims he ‘shoved his tongue down my throat’ and ‘his hands were very gropey’
- Amy Dorris accuses Trump of forcing his tongue down her throat 23 years ago
- She alleges that Trump was ‘very gropey’ and had his hands ‘over my butt, my breasts, my back, everything’
- She said she felt ‘sick’ and ‘violated’ after the alleged assault in Trump’s VIP box at the tournament in New York on September 5, 1997
- Trump was married at the time to Marla Maples, the mother of Tiffany Trump
- The US president denies any improper behavior ‘in the strongest possible terms’
A former model has accused Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her at the US Open tennis championship 23 years ago.
Amy Dorris, 48, who lives in Florida, said she felt ‘sick’ and ‘violated’ after the alleged assault in Trump’s VIP box at the tournament in New York on September 5, 1997.
Trump denies the claim.
In an interview with The Guardian, Dorris alleges that Trump forced his tongue down her throat and held her in a ‘tentacle’-like grip that she could not escape from.
Former model Amy Dorris (pictured) has accused Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her at the US Open tennis championship 23 years ago
Donald Trump, Amy Dorris and her then-boyfriend Jason Binn at the US Open in New York City in 1997, when Dorris alleges Trump sexually assaulted her
‘He just shoved his tongue down my throat and I was pushing him off,’ Dorris said. And then that’s when his grip became tighter and his hands were very gropey and all over my butt, my breasts, my back, everything.
‘I was in his grip, and I couldn’t get out of it. I don’t know what you call that when you’re sticking your tongue just down someone’s throat. But I pushed it out with my teeth. I was pushing it. And I think I might have hurt his tongue.’
Trump’s lawyers have denied ‘in the strongest possible terms’ that the president ever harassed, abused or behaved improperly towards Dorris.
The president’s lawyers told the Guardian that there would have been numerous witnesses to any sexual misconduct in the VIP box.
They also claim that Dorris’s ex-boyfriend Jason Binn has told them he has no recollection of Dorris making any such claims at the time.
Dorris, who lived in Boca Raton at the time and regularly went to Miami for modelling and acting work, says she was introduced to Trump in 1997 by Binn, who knew the real estate tycoon and later described him as his ‘best friend’.
She claims that she was taken to meet the future president at Trump Tower before the three of them went to the US Open at Flushing Meadows in NYC.
Dorris, then aged 24, alleges that Trump ‘came on very strong right away’ despite the fact that her boyfriend was sitting with her.
According to her account, she returned from a trip to the bathroom to find Trump forcing himself on her – saying she felt like she was suffocating in his ‘octopus’-like grip.
She alleges that Trump continued to assault her despite her pleading with him to ‘get away’, claiming that the tycoon ‘didn’t care’.
Donald Trump (left) with his ex-wife Ivana Trump at the US Open in New York in 1997
Jason Binn and Donald Trump in New York City circa 2008. Amy Dorris says that her ex-boyfriend Binn introduced her to Trump in 1997
The former model says she felt ‘violated’, but also felt pressured to act normally and continue chatting to guests after the alleged assault.
Dorris says she returned to Trump’s VIP box the following day, claiming that Trump continued to pursue her but did not assault her again.
Other guests in the box are said to have included the actor Leonardo DiCaprio and the illusionist David Blaine.
Dorris says she was in Trump’s presence again two days later at a memorial service for Gianni Versace, the fashion designer shot dead a few weeks earlier.
During her stay in New York, she claims, Trump tried to give the impression that they were a couple. On one occasion they were pictured signing autographs.
Binn, who has not commented on his ex-girlfriend’s claims, is the founder of luxury lifestyle magazines including DuJour magazine.
Trump was pictured watching that year’s US Open with his ex-wife Ivana as well as Dorris, Binn and other guests at the tennis grounds in Queens.
At the time of the alleged assault, Trump was 51 and married to his second wife Marla Maples, whom he married in 1993 and divorced in 1999.
Dorris, who is now a mother to twin daughters, says she considered speaking out in 2016 when numerous women accused Trump of sexual assault in the weeks before the presidential election but was concerned about the harm to her family.
‘Now I feel like my girls are about to turn 13 years old and I want them to know that you don’t let anybody do anything to you that you don’t want,’ she said.
Trump denied all the claims, alleging that his accusers had fabricated their stories in order to damage his campaign.
At the time of the alleged assault, Trump was married to Marla Maples, the mother of Tiffany Trump (the three are pictured together in Paris in 1996)
Trump (pictured) has denied in the strongest possible terms having ever harassed, abused or behaved improperly toward Dorris
Some of the previous cases are still being contested in the courts, including an allegation by former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos that he kissed and groped her on two occasions in 2007.
Zervos is suing Trump for defamation for suggesting that she lied when she came forward during the 2016 campaign.
In another case, magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll is seeking Trump’s DNA to support her allegation that he raped her in the 1990s. He denies this.
Another of Trump’s accusers, Jill Harth, sued Trump over sexual assault allegations in 1997, well before he went into politics.
Harth dropped her harassment lawsuit against Trump after he settled a separate breach of contract lawsuit. Trump denied her allegations.
Trump also denies having a consensual affair with porn star Stormy Daniels while married to current first lady Melania Trump.
Daniels was paid $130,000 shortly before the 2016 election to keep her story quiet, in a deal involving Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
Cohen, who was jailed for the campaign finance violation, said he paid the money out of his own pocket and was reimbursed by Trump’s camp.
In a separate case, Playboy model Karen McDougal was paid $150,000 by pro-Trump publisher American Media Inc to bury her story of an alleged affair with Trump, which he denies.
AMI, the owner of the National Enquirer, acknowledged the payment in a non-prosecution agreement with Manhattan investigators.
Dorris’ claim comes just weeks before the November 3 election in which Trump is vying for a second term against Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
Trump’s lawyers suggest that the timing shortly before the election means the new claim could be politically motivated.
Dorris added that she had voted for Republicans in the past and would have come forward even if Trump were a Democrat.
The women who have accused Donald Trump of sexual harassment
JILL HARTH: Sued Trump for sexual harassment in 1997, claiming he ‘forcibly’ took her to a bedroom and subjected her to unwanted sexual advances in 1993. The lawsuit was dropped but she discussed the allegations again in 2016, claiming that Trump ran his hands up her skirt at a 1992 dinner and separately tried to force himself on her in his daughter Ivanka’s bedroom. Trump denies her claims.
KRISTIN ANDERSON: A photographer who alleged in 2016 that Trump sexually assaulted her in a New York nightclub in the 1990s, claiming that he reached up her skirt and touched her through her underwear. Trump’s then-spokeswoman Hope Hicks called the allegation ‘phony’.
RACHEL CROOKS: A former Trump Tower receptionist, she told the New York Times in 2016 that Trump ‘kissed me directly on the mouth’ in 2005, when she was 22. Trump’s lawyers called the allegations ‘false and malicious’.
JESSICA LEEDS: Alleged in the same NYT story that Trump had grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt on a flight to New York in or around 1980. Trump’s lawyers issued the same response, calling the claims ‘false and malicious’.
JESSICA DRAKE: An adult film actress who told a Los Angeles news conference in October 2016 that Trump pressured her to have sex years earlier when they met at a golf tournament, claiming that he grabbed and kissed her without permission. Trump denies this.
Three alleged victims – Rachel Crooks (left), Jessica Leeds (center) and Samantha Holvey (right) – speak at a press conference in New York City in 2017
CATHY HELLER: Claimed in 2016 that Trump tried to kiss her during a Mother’s Day brunch at Mar-a-Lago in 1997, telling the Guardian that Trump ‘grabbed me and went for the lips’. Trump says this could not have happened.
SAMANTHA HOLVEY: A former Miss USA contestant, she said in 2017 that Trump entered the pageant dressing room in 2006 while contestants were naked and in bathrobes. She earlier told CNN in a 2016 report that Trump was ‘eyeing us from head to toe like we were meat, we were sexual objects’. Trump denies her claims.
ALVA JOHNSON: Alleged in a 2019 lawsuit that Trump kissed her before a Florida rally in 2016, while she was working on his presidential campaign. The White House denied the claim, saying witnesses at the Tampa rally could vouch for Trump.
NINNI LAAKSONEN: A former Miss Finland who accused Trump of groping her in 2006, telling Finnish media that he had grabbed her behind while she was representing her country in the Miss Universe contest. Trump did not respond directly but denied all the claims that emerged ahead of the 2016 election.
NATASHA STOYNOFF: A reporter who wrote a first-person piece for People magazine in 2016 claiming that Trump kissed her without consent at Mar-a-Lago in December 2005. The Trump campaign said it was ‘fictional’.
TEMPLE TAGGART: A former Miss Utah who claimed in October 2016 that Trump twice kissed her on the lips while she was a Miss USA contestant in 1997, when she was 21. Trump denied this and said he did not remember her, adding that he was reluctant to kiss strangers on the lips.
SUMMER ZERVOS: An Apprentice contestant in 2006, she claims that Trump kissed and groped her on two occasions while she was discussing a possible job in 2007, once in New York and once at a California hotel. After he denied the claim, she sued him for defamation, seeking damages and an apology. The claim is still pending.
Summer Zervos leaves a courthouse in New York in 2018
KARENA VIRGINIA: A yoga instructor, she old a news conference in 2016 that Trump approached her, commented on her legs and touched her breast outside the US Open venue in 1998, when she was 27 years old, leaving her feeling ‘ashamed’. Trump denies the claim.
MINDY McGILLIVRAY: Claimed in October 2016 that Trump grabbed her buttocks in 2003 when she was a 23-year-old working as a photographer’s assistant at a Mar-a-Lago event. Trump denies her claim.
E. JEAN CARROLL: The long-time Elle columnist alleged in 2019 that Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s, Two friends said she later recounted the incident, but said she decided not to report it to police. After Trump denied it, Carroll sued her for defamation. She is seeking Trump’s DNA to prove her case. The case is still pending.
LISA BOYNE: Said in a short film called 16 Women and Donald Trump that the real estate tycoon looked under women’s dresses after telling them to model above a table at a New York dinner party. Trump denied the claim.
AMY DORRIS: Told the Guardian in an interview published in September 2020 that Trump sexually assaulted her in his VIP box at the US open in 1997. Trump’s lawyers rejected the claim and said there would have been witnesses.
In addition to these harassment claims, porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal claim to have had consensual affairs with Trump in the mid-2000s while he was married to current first lady Melania. The president denies that these relationships ever happened.
Daniels said she had sex with Trump in 2006, also claiming in a 2018 interview that Trump had broached the idea of her being a contestant on The Apprentice. She stressed that she was ‘not a victim’.
The 41-year-old received a $130,000 payment for her silence days before the 2016 presidential election.
McDougal said in a 2018 interview that her affair with Trump began at a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2006. She said she ended the relationship in 2007 out of guilt.
She was paid $150,000 by American Media Inc, the publisher of the pro-Trump National Enquirer, to keep her story quiet ahead of the election.
Stormy Daniels (pictured) claims that she had a consensual relationship with Trump in 2006, which he denies
