December 11, 2017

Women Who Accused Trump of Sexual Misconduct Want Congress to Open an Investigation

They also slammed the president’s endorsement of Roy Moore.

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Three women who came forward last year to accuse then-candidate Donald Trump of sexual misconduct are renewing their stories in hopes that Congress will open an investigation into their allegations. The women—Jessica Leeds, Samantha Holvey, and Rachel Crooks—recounted their stories during two media events Monday and asked why it was acceptable for the president to escape the kind of scrutiny other politicians and high-profile figures have experienced in light of the national conversation around sexual harassment in recent months. “Let’s try this again,” Holvey said.

“If they were willing to investigate Sen. [Al] Franken, it’s only fair that they do the same for Trump,” Crooks said during a press conference hosted by Brave New Films, a liberal documentary production company that released 16 Women and Trump, which focuses on Trump’s accusers and sexual misconduct allegations.

In October 2016, Leeds and Crooks told the New York Times that Trump inappropriately touched them—Leeds during an incident decades before as she sat in a plane seat next to Trump, Crooks while she worked as a receptionist for a real estate company located in Trump Tower in Manhattan. That same month, Holvey described to CNN how Trump would gawk at her and other beauty pageant contestants while they prepared backstage for events.

“We’re private citizens, and for us to put ourselves out there to try to show America who this man is, especially how he views women, and for them to say, ‘We don’t care,’ it hurt,” Holvey said in a separate appearance on Megyn Kelly Today. “Now it’s just like, all right, let’s try round two. The environment’s different. Let’s try again.”

https://twitter.com/MegynTODAY/status/940228974994771969

The women on Monday also condemned Trump’s recent endorsement of Roy Moore, the Alabama Senate candidate who has been accused of sexually molesting teenage girls. “The endorsement is disgusting,” Holvey said. “Absolutely disgusting.” Crooks described Trump’s support as the president “passing the torch” to Moore.

The White House dismissed the allegations as politically motivated. “These false claims, totally disputed in most cases by eyewitness accounts, were addressed at length during last year’s campaign, and the American people voiced their judgment by delivering a decisive victory,” the White House said in a statement released Monday. “The timing and absurdity of these false claims speaks volumes, and the publicity tour that has begun only further confirms the political motives behind them.”

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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.

Wow.

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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