Ex-model Amy Dorris accuses Trump of sexual assault at 1997 US Open

A former model has accused US President Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her at the US Open tennis tournament in 1997, the Guardian reports.

The alleged incident outside the bathroom in his VIP box at the tournament in New York on Sep 5 that year left her feeling “sick” and “violated”, Amy Dorris said in an interview with the newspaper.

Trump forced his tongue down her throat, assaulting her all over her body and holding her in a grip she was unable to escape from, she said.

“…his hands were very gropey and all over my butt, my breasts, my back, everything,” Dorris said.

Dorris was 24 while Trump was 51 and married to his second wife, Marla Maples, at the time.

Dorris said she spent several days with Trump in September 1997 after being taken to New York for a long weekend by her then boyfriend, Jason Binn.

Trump denied via his lawyers having ever harassed, abused or behaved improperly toward Dorris.

US President Donald Trump hosts an event on reopening schools amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the East Room at the White House in Washington, US, July 7, 2020. REUTERS

Dorris, who lives in Florida, provided the Guardian with evidence to support her account of her encounters with Trump, including her ticket to the US Open and six photos showing her with the real estate magnate over several days in New York.

Her account was also corroborated by several people she confided in about the incident.

They include a friend in New York and Dorris’s mother, both of whom she called immediately after the alleged incident, as well as a therapist and friends she spoke to in the years since.

All said Dorris had shared with them details of the alleged incident that matched what she later told the Guardian.

Dorris, now 48 and a mother to twin daughters, said she had considered speaking publicly about the incident in 2016, when several women made public similar accusations against the then Republican candidate for president.

But she decided against coming forward, in part because she thought that doing so might harm 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.