October 20, 2016

Another Woman Accuses Trump of Groping Her

She is the 10th woman to come forward.

Yin Bogu/ZUMA

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Yet another woman accused Donald Trump on Thursday of groping her—the 10th woman to accuse the Republican presidential candidate of unwanted sexual contact in the past eight days.

At a press conference with famed women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred, Karena Virginia alleged that in 1998, Trump groped her at the US Open Tennis Tournament. In her statement, Virginia claimed that Trump approached her while she was waiting for a car to pick her up and drive her home. “Hey, look at this one,” Trump said, according to Virginia. “We haven’t seen her before. Look at those legs.” She said Trump then grabbed her arm before putting his hand on her breast. “I was in shock,” Virginia said. “I flinched. ‘Don’t you know who I am? Don’t you know who I am?’ That’s what he said to me,” she alleged.

Virginia said no one asked her to come forward, but that she did so in support of the other women who have made allegations against Trump.

Allred admitted to being a supporter of Hillary Clinton but said she had no contact with the campaign regarding her allegations or those of former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos, another accuser who held a press conference with Allred last week.

According to Allred, Virginia is not planning to pursue a lawsuit.

The issue of Trump’s unwanted sexual advances toward women has sparked a firestorm just weeks before the election. On October 8, the Washington Post released a video showing Trump making lewd comments about his interactions with women in 2005. Since the release, 10 women have come forward to accuse him of groping or kissing them without their consent.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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