Melania Trump threatens to sue People, journalist who says she was assaulted by Donald Trump

(Image credit: Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

published 14 October 2016

On Wednesday night, People published a first-person account by former staff writer Natasha Stoynoff of what she says were aggressive, unwanted sexual advances by Donald Trump while she was writing a glowing profile of his first year of marriage to Melania Trump. Donald Trump denied the allegation on Thursday, saying it was made up, the room where he allegedly pinned her against the wall and kissed her had "glass walls", and that he would not have assaulted her and proposed they have an extramarital affair because "look at her."

Also on Thursday, Melania Trump, through lawyer Charles Harder — who sued Gawker to death — threatened to sue People for damages if it did not retract and apologize for three "false and completely fictionalized" lines in Stoynoff's account. Those lines?

People spokeswoman Marnia Perez told USA Today that People has received the letter and "we stand by our story." People deputy editor J.D. Heyman told The Washington Post on Thursday that Stoynoff did not tell editors at the magazine about her encounter with Trump until after last Friday's release of Trump's lewd comments about forcing himself on women, and they encouraged her to write up her account. After Trump's alleged assault, "she felt a great deal of worry and distress about it. Then she felt angry," Heyman said. "I think she felt conflicted at the time. She didn't know what to do. She didn’t want to make a fuss, and she was frightened." After hearing Trump deny that he groped women at Sunday's debate, he said, Stoynoff was ready to go public. People had no prior knowledge of the other accusations from three other women published Wednesday, Hayman said.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.