Former Apprentice contestant accuses Trump of unwanted sexual advances


Summer Zervos, a former contestant on Donald Trump's show The Apprentice, appeared at a press conference Friday to accuse the Republican nominee of unwanted sexual advances, Politico reports. In the "tearful press conference," Zervos explained that she had reached out to Trump in the hopes of working for his organization in 2007:
[Zervos] met with [Trump] in his New York office, Zervos said, when he kissed her unexpectedly multiple times on the lips, and he later suggested meeting in Los Angeles to discuss her employment. At the hotel, Zervos alleges, Trump attempted to make a sexual advance on her, and she rebuffed him. After the encounter, Zervos said, she still sought employment with the Trump Organization, and believed she was not offered a job there because she had denied his advances. [Politico]
Zervos made the comments alongside attorney Gloria Allred, who formerly represented several of the women who accused actor Bill Cosby of sexual assault, Politico reports.
Also on Friday, The Washington Post published an account by a woman who said Trump reached up her skirt at a club in the early 1990s. She and Zervos join a growing list of women who have come forward to accuse Trump of inappropriate, non-consensual sexual conduct. Trump and his surrogates have vehemently denied all allegations.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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