Trump accusers: Who are the women at the centre of sexual harassment allegations against the US President?

Jessica Leeds, Rachel Crooks and Samantha Holvey repeat accusations of misconduct but are by no means the only women to come forward against billionaire businessman

Three of the women who have accused US President Donald Trump of sexual misconduct called on Monday for a congressional probe of his behaviour amid similar accusations against powerful men in Hollywood, the media and politics.

Over the past two years, more than a dozen women have accused Trump of making unwanted sexual advances against them long before he entered politics. Trump has denied the accusations, and the White House has accused the women of lying.

Among his accusers are a Miss Utah beauty pageant winner, a businesswoman, a reporter and a receptionist.

The following are the three women who on Monday renewed their call for action:

Jessica Leeds

Jessica Leeds recounted in a video interview posted on The New York Times website in October 2016 that Trump grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt on a flight on which she was travelling to New York in or around 1980 when she was a 38-year-old businesswoman.

Rachel Crooks

Rachel Crooks, formerly a receptionist at a real estate firm in Trump Tower, told The New York Times in a report published in October 2016 that Trump “kissed me directly on the mouth” in 2005 at Trump Tower in Manhattan when she was 22.

Samantha Holvey

Samantha Holvey, the 2006 Miss North Carolina and a former contestant in the Miss USA pageant, told NBC’s Today programme on Monday that Trump walked into the pageant dressing room in 2006 while contestants were naked and in bathrobes. She told CNN in an October 2016 report that Trump personally inspected each woman prior to the contest, “eyeing us from head to toe like we were meat, we were sexual objects.”

Here are other women who have made accusations against Trump:

Summer Zervos

Summer Zervos, a contestant on Trump’s reality show The Apprentice in 2006, told an October 2016 news conference that Trump tried to get her to lie down on a bed with him when she met him in 2007 to discuss a possible job. Zervos said she complied with a request to sit next to Trump and, “He then grabbed my shoulder and began kissing me very aggressively and placed his hand on my breast.” Trump has denied the allegation.

Zervos sued Trump in January, contending that his denials of her accusations amounted to false and defamatory statements and that being “branded a liar” by Trump has harmed her and her business.

Kristin Anderson

In a video posted on The Washington Post website in October 2016, Kristin Anderson accused Trump of putting his hand up her skirt in a crowded New York nightclub in the early 1990s in an unwanted advance. “He did touched my vagina through my underwear, absolutely,” Anderson said in the video interview.

Lisa Boyne

Lisa Boyne said in a short film titled 16 Women and Donald Trump that she met Trump in the early 1990s at a dinner party he hosted in New York. Boyne said that Trump picked up her and another person in his limousine, and he made inappropriate remarks about famous actresses. “He asked us to rate them from one to 10,” Boyne said.

Boyne said that at the party, Trump “used his table as a ‘casting couch,’ instructing women who attended to model above the table. He then looked under the dresses of each women and made comments of what he saw.”

Jessica Drake

Jessica Drake, an adult film actress, told a news conference in Los Angeles in October 2016 that Trump pressured her to have sex with him 11 years ago when they met at a golf tournament. Trump’s campaign said the accusations were false.

Jill Harth

Jill Harth, a former Trump beauty pageant business associate, filed a $125 million lawsuit in 1997 against Trump alleging that on 24 January 1993, at Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, Trump “forcibly removed plaintiff to a bedroom, whereupon defendant subjected plaintiff to defendant’s unwanted sexual advances.” A Trump spokesperson was quoted by The New York Times in October 2016 as saying, “Mr Trump denies each and every statement made by Ms Harth.” The lawsuit was dropped in May 1997.

Cathy Heller

Cathy Heller said that in 1997 Trump tried to kiss her during a Mother’s Day brunch at Mar-a-Lago. Heller, her husband, her three children and her in-laws attended the event. When she was introduced to Trump, “He took my hand, and grabbed me, and went for the lips,” she told The Guardian newspaper in October 2016. She said she turned her head and Trump kissed her on the side of the mouth.

Ninni Laaksonen

Ninni Laaksonen, a former Miss Finland, accused Trump of groping her in 2006 when she was representing her country in the Miss Universe beauty contest. Laaksonen told the Ilta-Sanomat newspaper in October 2016 that he had grabbed her behind before she appeared on a television show in New York with other contestants. “He really grabbed my butt. I don’t think anybody saw it but I flinched and thought: ‘What is happening?',” she was quoted as saying in the newspaper.

Mindy McGillvray

In October 2016 Mindy McGillivray told The Palm Beach Post that she was a 23-year-old photographer’s assistant at a 24 January 2003, event at Mar-a-Lago when Trump grabbed her buttocks.

Natasha Stoynoff

Natasha Stoynoff, a reporter, wrote a first-person account that described Trump kissing her without her consent in December 2005 at Mar-a-Lago while she was working on an article about him and his third wife, Melania, for People magazine. In the account published by People in October 2016, Stoynoff said “he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat.”

Temple Taggart

Temple Taggart, a former Miss Utah, said Trump twice kissed her on the lips while she was a contestant for the Miss USA pageant in 1997 when she was 21 years old. “What he did made me feel so uncomfortable that I ended up cutting my trip short, bought my own plane ticket, flew home and never spoke to him again,” Taggart said at an October 2016 press conference with her attorney, Gloria Allred.

Karena Virginia

At an October 2016 news conference, yoga instructor Karena Virginia said Trump approached her outside the U.S. Open tennis tournament in 1998 when she was 27 years old. She alleged that Trump commented on her legs and then touched her breast before she was able to get into a car and be driven away.

Reuters