Stacey Williams at a Sports Illustrated event in 1996; Donald Trump in New York in 1993.
Thirty-one years after Stacey Williams says she was groped by Donald Trump while Jeffrey Epstein watched, the 56-year-old writer, consultant and former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model went public this week with her allegation.
Williams, 56, told her story on a “Survivors for Kamala” Zoom call Monday night that was open to the public and that organizers said hundreds of people joined. It featured an array of women discussing their experiences with sexual violence and included actor Ashley Judd and Tarana Burke, who founded the #MeToo movement.
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Williams, a registered Democrat who attended the 2008 Democratic National Convention and has been involved in liberal causes in the past, said on the Zoom call that her decision to come forward was in part related to the election.
“I figured it was time to share this, and I’m ready to win this election,” Williams said on the Zoom call. “The thought of that monster being back in the White House is my absolute worst nightmare.”
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In an interview with NBC News on Wednesday, Williams said her decision to come forward was not made in conjunction with the Democratic Party. Asked whether she had had any communications with Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, she said, “None whatsoever.”
Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt flatly denied Williams’ allegation in a statement. “These accusations, made by a former activist for Barack Obama and announced on a Harris Campaign call two weeks before the election, are unequivocally false,” the statement said in part.
NBC News spoke to seven people who said they discussed the allegations with Williams between 2006 and 2022. All of them said they found Williams and her claim to be credible and consistent. Her allegation was first published in The Guardian and first broadcast by CNN.
Williams appears to be the first person to publicly allege sexual misconduct by Trump in which Epstein played a role. None of the dozens of women in Epstein’s orbit whom NBC News has interviewed over the last seven years have accused Trump of misconduct that involved Epstein.
Epstein pled guilty in 2008 to a state charge of procuring a minor for prostitution and served time in jail in Florida. He died by suicide in 2019 in a federal jail in Manhattan as he awaited trial on charges of sex trafficking minors.
“I feel very comfortable and ready to tell it,” Williams told NBC News, “and then I can handle the backlash.”
A visit to Trump Tower
Williams said that she first met Epstein at a dinner in 1992 and that they began spending time together when both were in town. She said that Epstein was not her boyfriend and that the relationship was never sexual.
She and Epstein attended a Christmas party that year at the Plaza Hotel — which Trump owned at the time. She recalled seeing Trump at the party and said it was clear that the two men were friends.
Later, in the “later winter, early spring” of 1993, Williams recalled, she was walking with Epstein near Fifth Avenue when he suggested visiting Trump at Trump Tower. It was a sunny day, she recalled, and she was not wearing a coat, she told NBC News.
She said on the Zoom call, “We went to Trump Tower and went up the elevator, and moments later, Trump was greeting us.”
Within moments of meeting him, Trump “pulled me into him and started groping me. He put his hands all over my breasts and my waist, butt and I froze,” Williams said on the Zoom call, her voice seeming to crack as she described being touched. “And I froze because I was so deeply confused about what was happening because the hands were moving all over me.”
Williams said that, as Trump groped her, the two men spoke calmly with each other.
“These two men were, like, smiling at one another and continuing on in their conversation,” she said.
Williams told NBC News that the two men spoke about her “as an object.” She said they focused on her looks and her appearances in Sports Illustrated in a conversation she said was “gross.” She said that the entire incident lasted five to 10 minutes and that it happened in a reception area outside Trump’s office.
Williams said that after the encounter, when she and Epstein were back out on the street, Epstein became furious and began “berating” her with questions. “Why did you let him do that?” he asked, according to Williams. The fact that Epstein blamed her disoriented her, Williams said.
“He made me feel so disgusting and, I remember, at that moment so utterly confused,” Williams recalled. “I felt so humiliated and so sick to my stomach and so upset.”
She added, “I was someone who really prided myself as being one of the tough models who was kind of problematic because I fought back against the predators of the industry.”
“And then the next, probably the next, sensation that I remember was just shame and embarrassment,” she said. “I had allowed something to happen that I could have stopped.”
Williams and Epstein never discussed the incident again, she said. Williams was deeply troubled and cut off contact with Epstein shortly afterward. She said she had no awareness that Epstein had abused young women and broken the law until media reports about him emerged.
Days after the incident, a postcard arrived at her modeling agency addressed to her, Williams recalled. It had Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on the front and what appeared to be a handwritten message from him on the back. Williams said she still has the postcard, and she shared photographs with NBC News.
“Stacey, your home away from home, Love Donald” was written on the back, in handwriting that appears similar to Trump’s. The postcard is not postmarked or dated.
“I had a lot of shame, and I blamed myself for it. And that made me not want to talk about it,” Williams said.
She added that she never considered reporting the allegations to the police. She said she never encountered Trump again.
NBC News spoke to seven people who said Williams previously told them about the alleged encounter with Trump, most of whom requested anonymity. Six were longtime friends and acquaintances. The first was told in 2006, another was told before Trump was a presidential candidate, and the most recent was told in 2022.
Ally Gutwillinger, a friend, said Williams told her the week after Trump announced his presidential campaign in 2015 that she had been groped by Trump with Epstein present.
“I remember it clearly. I was in her house," Gutwillinger told NBC News. "I saw the postcard of Mar-a-Lago sitting there. And she told me to turn it over. And it said, ‘Stacey, your home away from home. Love Donald.’”
Williams's claim that Epstein introduced her to Trump echoes other women's descriptions of Epstein and his convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, introducing women to individuals who sexually abused them in some manner.
Deciding to speak out
Two years ago, Williams was interviewed for a film about the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, “Beyond the Gaze.” At one point, she said on camera that she was groped by a former president in front of Epstein, but she did not name Trump. Several weeks ago, she learned that the film would be shown at the Woodstock Film Festival earlier this month.
Williams told NBC News she thought it was important that she provide more context about what occurred, given that the premiere of the film was within weeks of the election.
“If this is to be out there, I need to tell my story, and I feel ready,” she said.
Through a friend, she was connected with the “Survivors for Kamala” call, a coalition of groups and individuals aligned in support of Harris.
Trump has faced allegations of sexual misconduct in recent years from numerous women, including former columnist E. Jean Carroll. Last year, a New York jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s but not liable for her alleged rape. He has continued to deny all allegations of sexual misconduct.
The latest allegation against Trump comes less than two weeks before Election Day and with early voting having already started in multiple states.
In a 2005 video that became known as the “Access Hollywood” tape after it became public in 2016, released just weeks before the election that year, Trump can be heard saying, “I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women — I just start kissing them, it’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,” he said, including “grab ’em by the p----.”
Williams said she had slowly become more comfortable with telling her story over time.
“He harmed me,” Williams told NBC News. “Sexual assault is harmful. It damages people.”
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