Trump campaign puts forth 'eyewitness' to debunk assault claim from Jessica Leeds

(Image credit: David Kohl/AFP/Getty Images)

published 14 October 2016

In an interview with the New York Post arranged by the Trump campaign and published Friday, British 54-year-old Anthony Gilberthorpe says he can dispute Jessica Leeds' claim of sexual assault against Donald Trump.

In a story published Wednesday in The New York Times, Leeds claimed Trump groped her when she was seated next to him on an airplane in the 1980s, but Gilberthorpe says he was on that plane and "not only did [Trump] not do so ... but it was she that was the one being flirtatious." Gilberthorpe claims he was seated across from Leeds on the flight in question, and that it was Leeds who was "trying too hard" to win Trump over. "She wanted to marry him," Gilberthorpe says. "What she said about Trump is wrong."

Gilberthorpe has no actual evidence to corroborate his telling of events — "just his self-described excellent memory," the Post writes — but he says he contacted the Trump campaign and was moved to speak out because he did not appreciate Leeds telling the Times that "the guy in the seat across the aisle could see" but instead sat by idly without assisting her. "That I sat there — eyes bulging — and not intervening is nonsense," he says.