Jessica Leeds, an octogenarian American, said Tuesday, May 2, to have been sexually assaulted by Donald Trump on a plane in the late 1970s, during the civil trial in New York where the former American president is accused of rape and defamation by the author E. Jean Carroll.

Jessica Leeds, 81, told federal court in Manhattan how, "in 1978-79," on a plane to New York, she pulled herself out of her first-class seat because the businessman tried to kiss her neck and then put his hands under her skirt.

According to his account, Donald Trump had introduced himself, but they had not engaged in a conversation. "There was no discussion, it came out of nowhere ... He tried to kiss me, to grab my breasts," added Jessica Leeds, 37, who worked as a sales manager for a printing group.

In front of the nine jurors, Jessica Leeds explained under oath that she had found the strength to get up and leave when Donald Trump had "put his hands under my skirt". The scene had unfolded in a few "seconds", without any flight attendant seeming to notice, according to her, then Jessica Leeds had won another seat.

She had already broken the silence in 2016 in the New York Times and Donald Trump had denied these accusations. During a meeting, whose jurors viewed the footage, he added: "Believe me, she would not be my first choice."

Trump absent

Jessica Leeds was invited to testify by E. Jean Carroll, 79, who accuses the former president of the United States of raping her in a fitting room of a New York department store in 1996. Called to testify for several hours last week, she gave a detailed account, which Donald Trump's lawyers tried to question, surprising for example that she never screamed or called for help.

The former US president, who wants to win back the White House in 2024, will not appear at the trial, confirmed Tuesday one of his lawyers, Joe Tacopina. The Republican billionaire rejects the accusations and claims to have never met E. Jean Carroll, at the time a columnist for Elle magazine.

The plaintiff's lawyers want to name yet another woman among those who have accused the Republican billionaire of sexual assault in the past.

Jessica Leeds explained that she had only broken the silence in 2016, when Donald Trump had claimed, during a presidential debate against Hillary Clinton, that he "respected women" and had never committed sexual assault. The jurors were able to watch this television sequence, during which the Republican candidate had to defend himself after the broadcast of insulting remarks against women.

"The truth"

On Tuesday, a friend of E. Jean Carroll, columnist Lisa Birnbach, also corroborated the complainant's account. It confirmed that E. Jean Carroll had called her just after the alleged facts, in 1996, to confide that Donald Trump had "assaulted" her. "I want the world to know that she was telling the truth," Birnbach said.

Donald Trump's defense tried to demonstrate that it was driven by a political purpose, citing his unfriendly remarks about the former president in podcasts. She had called him a "narcissistic sociopath," a "Russian agent" and an "employee of Putin," comments she made Tuesday.

Donald Trump is not criminally prosecuted for rape in this case. E. Jean Carroll filed a complaint for "assault" and "defamation" - for comments made by Donald Trump against him - based on a law last November in the state of New York that makes civil lawsuits possible for cases of sexual assault prescribed in criminal law. She is seeking financial compensation to be determined by the jury if it finds her upright.

With AFP

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