Trump accused of sexual misconduct by 10th woman

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Trump accused of sexual misconduct by 10th woman

NEW YORK: A 10th woman accused Donald Trump of unwanted sexual contact on Thursday morning, just hours after the presidential candidate angrily renewed his denials of ever having inappropriate contact with women.

Karena Virginia claims that Trump groped her and made sexual comments toward her at a random encounter outside the 1998 US Open tennis tournament in Flushing, Queens. Virginia was 27 at the time. The two had never previously met, she said.

“I was waiting for a car to arrive to take me home,” she said, flanked by famous women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred, and facing a battery of clacking cameras.

As she was waiting, she claimed, Trump approached her with a small group of other men. “I was surprised when I overheard him talking to the other men about me. He said: ‘Hey, look at this one, we haven’t seen her before. Look at those legs,’ as though I were an object rather than a person.

“He then walked up to me and reached out his right arm and grabbed my right arm,” she continued. “Then his hand touched the right side of my breast. I was in shock. I flinched. ‘Don’t you know who I am? Don’t you know who I am?’ – that’s what he said to me. I felt intimidated and I felt powerless. When my car pulled up and I got in, after I closed the door, my shock turned to shame.”

Virginia, who described herself on Thursday as a yoga instructor and life coach from the tri-state area, spoke in a midtown Manhattan hotel conference room just blocks away from Trump Tower. It was less than one week after Allred held a press conference with another Trump accuser.

“Her allegations demonstrate how Mr Trump selects his victims at random,” Allred said.

Asked if Allred and Virginia could produce eyewitnesses of the event, Allred replied that Virginia had told her husband and several friends about the alleged encounter soon after it occurred.

Virginia is the 10th woman to publicly accuse Trump of inappropriate sexual contact – the seventh since a 2005 tape revealed Trump bragging that his fame allowed him to grope and kiss women without their consent.

In the second presidential debate, just days after the tape was published by the Washington Post, Trump denied that he ever acted on his words. He dismissed it as “locker-room talk”. Several of his accusers have said his denials are what spurred them to go public.

The tape and the accusers have roiled the presidential election in its critical final weeks. And it has sent some members of Trump’s party scrambling to create distance from the candidate.

Trump, meanwhile, has vehemently denied the accusations. At a recent rally, he suggested the women accusing him were not attractive enough to draw his attention. “Look at her,” Trump said, referring to a People magazine reporter who claimed Trump had pushed her against a wall and kissed her. “I don’t think so.”

Meanwhile, Republican Donald Trump on Thursday said he would accept a "clear" election result but reserved the right to file a legal challenge, clarifying his stance a day after he refused to promise he would trust the outcome if he loses on Nov 8.

"Of course, I would accept a clear election result, but I would also reserve my right to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of a questionable result," Trump said at a rally in Ohio.

Asked on Wednesday at his final debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton if he would accept a losing outcome, Trump said he would "keep you in suspense."