While testifying before a federal jury in Manhattan on Tuesday, Natasha Stoynoff broke down in tears as she described the time she claimed Donald Trump forced him to kiss her and then said, “You know we are going to have an affair.”
Stoynoff stated in court that she interviewed Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2005 for a People magazine story on his first anniversary with Melania Trump, when Carroll claimed he sexually assaulted her.
“By the time I turned around, [Trump] had his hands on my shoulders, was pushing me against the wall, and was kissing me,” a teary-eyed Stoynoff recalled. I made an effort to distance myself from him.
Trump took Stoynoff to a “beautiful” room in the mansion while Melania, who was pregnant at the time, was changing upstairs. The reported event occurred here.
“He was kissing me,” the source told the reporter. “And he was pressing up against me, holding my shoulder back.”
According to Stoynoff, she kept her mouth shut during the struggle.
I didn’t say anything,” Stoynoff explained. I couldn’t do it. Really, I did. Astounded and distressed, I was. I was speechless. To no avail, though.
She said that their talk was cut short when a butler walked in to announce that Melania had finished primping and they should return to the yard.
“You know we’re going to have an affair,” Trump reportedly told Stoynoff when they returned to the outdoors.
It was the best sex she’s ever had,” Stoynoff recalled Trump telling his second wife, Marla.
According to Stoynoff, she disclosed the incident to her immediate supervisor but stopped short of informing higher-ups because she didn’t want to rock the boat at the magazine or risk having the piece scrapped.
When asked about his feelings, Stoynoff remarked, “I was embarrassed and ashamed.” The piece appeared in the January 2006 issue of People.
Nonetheless, she requested, and her manager granted, that she no longer cover the Trump family.
In an article published in People in October 2016, Stoynoff first publicly shared her story. Trump has previously denied saying the controversial things he was heard saying on the 2005 “Access Hollywood” video, such as how he would grab women “by the p—y” and they’d allow him since he was a star.
She described how Stoynoff felt when she heard the tape: “sick and a little bit relieved at the same time.”
She told reporters on Tuesday, “I honestly thought to myself, ‘Oh, he does this to a lot of people.’ It’s not just me.
Through her sobs, Stoynoff revealed, “What scared me the most was that I was afraid that other women were hurt by him because I didn’t say anything at the time.” As the saying goes, “I had some regret there.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Stoynoff finished testifying.
Trump has said she is dishonest.