The Trump campaign is demanding that the New York Times retracts its story from Wednesday which details the accounts of two women who claim Donald Trump groped and “inappropriately touched” them.
In a letter written later that evening by Trump attorney Marc E. Kasowitz to Times editor Dean Baquet that was sent to TheWrap, the campaign describes the article titled “Two Women Say Donald Trump Touched Them Inappropriately” as “libelous.”
“Your article is reckless, defamatory and constitutes libel per se,” the letter continues. “It is nothing more than a politically-motivated effort to defeat Mr. Trump’s candidacy. That is why you performed an entirely inadequate investigation to test the veracity of these false and malicious allegations, including why these individuals waited” 11 years and three decades before coming forward with “false and defamatory” statements.
In the Times piece under fire, Jessica Leeds of New York and Rachel Crooks of Ohio both detailed encounters with the Republican presidential nominee.
“He was like an octopus,” Leeds, 74, said of her alleged run-in with Trump, more than 30 years ago on an airplane.
“His hands were everywhere,” she said, adding that Trump had lifted the arm rest separating them and, as the Times paraphrased it, “grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt.”
Crooks, 33, said she was working as a receptionist at a company housed in Trump Tower in 2005 when she met Trump — who allegedly shook her hand, would not let go and “kissed me directly on the mouth.”
“None of this ever took place,” Trump told the paper, which noted that he “began shouting at The Times reporter who was questioning him.” His campaign said in an earlier statement to TheWrap that the “entire article is fiction” and called it an “assassination” attempt on Trump.
In the latest letter, Kasowitz demands “that you immediately cease any further publication of this article, remove it from your website and issue a full and immediate retraction and apology. Failure to do so will no option but to pursue all available actions and remedies.”