Trump kissed campaign worker without her consent, lawsuit claims

White House denies allegations brought in lawsuit by Alva Johnson, calling them 'absurd'

A former campaign staffer who worked on Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign has sued the president, alleging he kissed her without consent.

Alva Johnson said she turned her head as he went in for a kiss outside of a rally in Tampa, Florida in August 2016, causing the future-president to place his lips on the side of her mouth.

“I immediately felt violated because I wasn’t expecting it or wanting it,” she told the Washington Post. “I can still see his lips coming straight for my face.”

The allegations are the most recent claims of sexual harassment levelled against the president, after scores of women came forward during the 2016 election with credible claims of assault by Mr Trump. Ms Johnson’s suit is the first to accuse the president of sexual misconduct along the campaign trail, however.

“To Defendant Trump, however, Ms. Johnson was nothing more than a sexual object he felt entitled to dominate and humiliate,” the lawsuit read. “Like he has done with so many other women, Defendant Trump violated norms of decency and privacy by kissing Ms. Johnson on the lips without her consent in the middle of a Florida work event and in front of numerous other Campaign officials.”

The White House has denied the allegations. “This never happened and is directly contradicted by multiple highly credible eye witness accounts,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement, calling the allegations “absurd on its face.”

Ms Johnson spoke about the alleged incident to several of her loved ones, including her mother, stepfather and boyfriend, all of whom confirmed they spoke to the former staffer at the time about the ordeal. An attorney she met with in Florida told the Post he had found her story to be “credible” and referred her to a therapist but did not take her case for “business reasons”.

She has reportedly named at least two eye-witnesses she said saw the alleged incident who denied seeing the interaction. One of those eye witnesses is Pam Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida who received a $25,000 donation through a political committee from the Trump Foundation that became a subject of investigation by New York prosecutors.

Ms Johnson filed the federal lawsuit in Florida on Monday, claiming the president’s campaign discriminated against her as a black woman, paying her white male colleagues more than she earned at the time. The suit demands unspecified damages for emotional pain and suffering, the Post reported.

A campaign spokesperson described Ms Johnson’s allegations of discrimination as "off-base and unfounded".

The Post detailed a lengthy reporting process that involved reaching out to the former staffer — who said she contemplated telling her story after the controversial Access Hollywood tapes featured Mr Trump bragging about sexual assault — nearly a year ago.

"I’ve tried to let it go,” she told the newspaper while reportedly beginning to cry. “You want to move on with your life. I don’t sleep. I wake up at 4 in the morning looking at the news. I feel guilty.”

“The only thing I did was show up for work one day,” she added.

Ms Johnson claimed she first met the president at a rally in November 2015, where he looked her up and down before saying, “Oh, beautiful, beautiful, fantastic.” The alleged incident occurred as the president was walking out of a motor vehicle following his rally in Tampa, Florida in August 2016.

“I’ve been on the road for you since March, away from my family,” Ms Johnson allegedly told the president. “You’re doing an awesome job. Go in there and kick ass.”

That’s when she said the future president grasped her hand and leaned in for a kiss. “He’s coming straight for my lips,” she told the Post. “So I turn my head, and he kisses me right on corner of my mouth, still holding my hand the entire time. Then he walks on out.”

This isn’t the only lawsuit involving sexual misconduct against the president. Summer Zervos, a former contestant on ‘Apprentice’ who has sued Mr Trump in New York, claimed he kissed her and groped her forcibly in 2007.