SCANDAL: Canadian writer accuses Trump of decade old sex assault‏

A Canadian journalist accused Trump of sexual assault during an interview that took place a decade ago. According to a report by Canadian daily National observer, Former People magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff published a vivid account of allegedly being pinned against a wall and forcibly kissed by Trump. Allegations made by Stoynoff and at least three other women come less than a week after a 2005 video was released in which Trump is heard bragging that his fame gave him licence to kiss and touch women. Notably,the Trump's campaign has denied all allegations of sexual assault, and Trump himself denied Stoynoff’s account on Twitter on Thursday morning.

Stoynoff, who is a graduate of Ryerson University, Toronto began her journalim career from the Toronto Star and Toronto Sun, two Canadian national dailies. Stoynoff 's colleague's at Star said she was a talented interviewer with a striking ability to develop a rapport with her subjects. She said that ability helped Stoynoff carve out a career at People starting in the late 1990s before reality television and social media pushed celebrity journalism to its current heights of popularity.

Stoynoff, who said she worked at the magazine for nearly 20 years, said in her article that she began covering Trump in the early 2000s. In 2005, Stoynoff said she was assigned to write a first−anniversary profile of the glamorous couple and dispatched to their Florida estate to interview them about the past year. The interview took place around the same time Trump was surreptitiously filmed telling Dateline NBC correspondent Billy Bush that his fame allowed him to kiss women without consent and grab them by their genitals if he wished.

Shortly after the video’s release, Trump categorically denied that he had ever followed through on his boasts, describing the conversation as "locker room talk" and saying he had never actually approached a woman in the manner he described. According to Stoynoff’s published account, he employed some of those sexually aggressive tactics on her while a pregnant Melania Trump was upstairs changing outfits.

"We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us," she wrote. "I turned around, and within seconds he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat." Stoynoff said Trump was interrupted by the arrival of his butler, but said he vowed to have an affair with her moments later while waiting for his wife to rejoin him and complete the interview. Stoynoff said Donald Trump later called her to praise her completed article, and Melania Trump gave her a hug months later and lamented that she was no longer a regular presence around the family.

Stoynoff said she confided the alleged attack to a colleague, but opted not to pursue the matter beyond requesting to be taken off the Trump beat. Trump denied the allegations on Twitter, suggesting Stoynoff would not have kept quiet about such an incident. "Why didn’t the writer of the twelve year old article in People Magazine mention the ’incident’ in her story. Because it did not happen," he wrote.

While Trump accused Stoynoff of fabricating the  sex assault story, People Senior Editor Charlotte Triggs said Stoynoff’s silence stemmed from her sense of intimidation.

"She was terrified about the potential ramifications of this, and the potential fallout," she said in an interview with CNN.

Mediabites -Tazeen Hasan

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