From left: Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein
From the New York website: A new lawsuit filed in federal court accuses presidential hopeful Donald Trump of raping a 13-year-old girl at Jeffrey Epstein's Upper East Side New York mansion on multiple occasions more than 20 years ago.
The woman, who alleges the rapes occurred in 1994, filed a civil complaint in New York Federal Court on Monday against the presumptive Republican nominee and Epstein, a notorious ex-hedge funder previously convicted in a prostitution scandal involving minors in Palm Beach. Trump allegedly attended at least four of Epstein's parties at 9 East 71st Street in New York, known as the Wexner Mansion. The plaintiff, like other girls at the house, was lured to the parties with a promise of a modeling career, the lawsuit claims.
Testimony attached to the complaint alleges that a woman - identified only as Tiffany Doe - was hired by Epstein to recruit young girls for his parties. The woman allegedly met the plaintiff at Port Authority Bus Terminal and told her the parties would help connect her to the right people to launch her career.
The lawsuit, which repeats some allegations made in a dismissed complaint filed in California in April, offers a graphic account of the young girl's alleged encounters with Trump, the worst of which is described as a “savage sexual act.” The lawsuit claims that during this instance, Trump tied her to the bed and struck her face with his hand, saying he could do what he wanted, despite her pleas for him to stop. The complaint alleges that Epstein raped her twice.
Michael Cohen, special counsel to Trump, had not yet read the new allegations when reached by phone. An attorney for Epstein could not immediately be reached for comment. In response to a similar lawsuit filed back in April, Trump categorically denied the claims. That lawsuit was dismissed in May.
It should be noted that anyone can file a civil complaint in federal court. The statute of limitations in New York for civil rape cases is five years, but Monday's complaint argues that the time limit should be waived, noting that the plaintiff was too frightened to report the abuse because Trump had threatened that if she did “her family would be physically harmed if not killed.”
“Both defendants let plaintiff know that each was a very wealthy, powerful man and indicated that they had the power, ability and means to carry out their threats,” the complaint claims.
New York discarded its statute of limitations for criminal sexual assault cases in 2006. A spokesperson for District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. in Manhattan declined to comment on the lawsuit.
On April 26, a woman identified as “Katie Johnson” filed a similar rape complaint against Trump and Epstein in a California court. That case was dismissed in May because Johnson did not file the proper paperwork. The address she listed in California papers was found to be an abandoned property.
In the suit filed in New York on Monday, the “Jane Doe” plaintiff is revealed to be the same plaintiff as in the California suit. Details in the New York complaint differ slightly, however, including a claim that Trump's comments to the media after Johnson filed the California suit amounted to defamation. The new complaint also alleges that Trump knew the plaintiff was 13 years old at the time of the alleged assault, something that does not appear in the California filing.
After Johnson submitted the first suit in April, Trump vehemently denied the allegations, saying “these allegations are not only false, but disgusting at the highest level and clearly framed to solicit media attention or, perhaps, are simply politically motivated. There is absolutely no merit to these allegations. Period.”
An attorney for the plaintiff, Thomas Meagher, did not immediately return requests seeking comment. The website for Meagher's New Jersey-based firm indicates that it primarily specializes in intellectual property law.
Epstein, a billionaire financier and current registered sex offender, pleaded guilty in Palm Beach County to soliciting an underage prostitute in 2008 after a lengthy investigation. He served 13 months in jail. In 2015, a woman named Virginia Roberts accused Epstein of making her a sex slave in the service of the likes of Prince Andrew, Duke of York and the Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. Several other women have reached settlements with Epstein outside of court.
Jeffrey Epstein's brother, Mark Epstein, said in a deposition in 2009 that Trump flew on Epstein's private jet at least once in the past. The relationship between the two predates that allegation by some years.
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