Former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model says Trump groped her to show off for Jeffrey Epstein
New York (CNN) — A former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model is alleging that former President Donald Trump groped her in the 1990s, in what she believes was an attempt to show off for Jeffrey Epstein.
In her first on-camera interview about the allegation, with CNN Thursday, Stacey Williams offered her most detailed public account of the alleged encounter, which she said occurred outside Trump’s office in Trump Tower in the early 1990s when she was in her 20s and was briefly dating Epstein. CNN has spoken to three friends of Williams, who each said that she told them about the incident with Trump and Epstein, in 2006, in 2015 and in 2018, respectively.
Williams said that she and Epstein were walking together on Fifth Avenue in New York City in 1993 when Epstein brought her to Trump Tower to see Trump.
Trump greeted them outside his office, she said.
“The second he was in front of me, he pulled me into him, and his hands were just on me and didn’t come off,” Williams said. “And then the hands started moving, and they were on the, you know, on the side of my breasts, on my hips, back down to my butt, back up, sort of then, you know – they were just on me the whole time. And I froze. I couldn’t understand what was going on.”
Williams said that Epstein and Trump continued talking while Trump’s hands were on her, “looking at each other and smiling.” She thought it was possible an assistant to Trump may have come in and out of the room while they were there, but she can’t remember for sure.
“I think I probably was trying to smile and go through the motions of being engaged the way you would in a social situation. But it was an out of body experience,” she said. “So, I don’t know if I spoke, I don’t know if I answered questions, I don’t know. It was one of the strangest moments of my life.”
Not long after the encounter, Williams said she received a postcard from Trump, delivered to her modeling agency via courier, with a picture of Palm Beach on the front that featured his Mar-a-Lago resort.
“Stacey, Your home away from home. Love, Donald,” the undated postcard read on the back.
The Trump campaign denied Williams’ allegations, noting she shared her story on a Zoom call on Monday evening at a “Survivors for Kamala” event supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential run against Trump, though the group is unaffiliated with the Harris campaign.
“These accusations, announced on a Harris Campaign call two weeks before the election, are false,” said Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. “It’s obvious this fake story was contrived by Kamala Harris’ campaign to distract from the deeply concerning and newly unearthed allegations that the Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff ‘forcefully slapped’ his ex-girlfriend.”
A spokesperson for Emhoff denied claims made in a tabloid report that he assaulted a former girlfriend in 2012.
Williams said she met Epstein in the year before the alleged incident when her agent invited her to a dinner in New York, which Epstein also attended. She saw him again that year at a Christmas party hosted by Trump at his Plaza Hotel, where she said that the three of them spoke together. She had met Trump once before, she said, at a taping of Saturday Night Live.
Those close to Williams, including one person who knew Williams as early as the mid-1990s, told CNN that Williams had spoken to them about her past relationship with Epstein. City property records show that a trust associated with Epstein purchased a brownstone just off Fifth Avenue in 1992.
After the Christmas party, Williams said on the Zoom call that Epstein “expressed a lot of interest in me, and we started seeing each other.” She told CNN that they would often go on walks, and that Epstein spoke frequently about “Donald.”
At the time, she said, no one around Epstein – a convicted sex offender who died in jail in 2019 before he could face trial on federal sex-trafficking charges – appeared to have knowledge of his predatory behavior. “I wouldn’t have sat down at that table if I’d known what he was up to,” she said.