One day after the anonymous California woman known only as "Jane Doe" dismissed her lawsuit against Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, a health food business entrepreneur named Lisa Boyne spoke out on video for the first time to address her own allegations against Trump. The attorney who handled Jane Doe's suit, Lisa Bloom, is now representing Boyne, who spoke to Bloom about a dinner party she and Trump reportedly attended back in the mid-1990s. (At a rally last week, Trump denied these allegations: "These events never, ever happened," he said in regard to Boyne's claims, according to The Huffington Post.)
In an interview posted to Bloom's YouTube channel, Boyne claimed that she attended a dinner party where Trump allegedly made women walk in front of him so he could look up their skirts and comment on whether or not they were wearing underwear. Boyne claimed to Bloom she and Trump had shared a mutual friend, Sonja Morgan — now known for her role on The Real Housewives of New York City — and that Morgan had allegedly invited her to the dinner. Boyne said that on the night of the dinner, she was picked up in Trump's limousine, and that Trump allegedly made disparaging comments about women he had slept with or wanted to sleep with during the ride to the restaurant. (As noted, Trump has claimed these allegations never happened.)
When they got to the restaurant, Boyne said, they were reportedly seated at a semi-circular table with the women on the inside and the men on the outside. In an interview with The Huffington Post last month, Boyne claimed that this arrangement meant that the women couldn't get out of their seats unless the men did so first. Boyne told Bloom that she was allegedly seated next to John Casablancas, the late modeling agent, and that he had reportedly badgered and harassed her to drink.
Boyne said that soon afterward, Casablancas allegedly asked a group of models he had invited to get up on top of the table and walk across it before sitting next to Trump. "As the women walked across the table, Donald Trump would look up under their skirt and comment on whether they had underwear or didn't have underwear and what the view looked like," Boyne told Bloom. Bloom then asked Boyne what her reaction that was, and Boyne said that she "was horrified" and "felt nervous."
When Boyne first came forward about that evening, she told The Huffington Post that she was not asked to walk across the table herself. "I'm not a model. He wasn't interested in me," she claimed last month. "He was more interested in my opinion of who I think he should sleep with. I remember that vividly."
However, Boyne told Bloom that she was still not completely exempt. When she ultimately excused herself from the table to go home, she allegedly heard Trump tell Casablancas that she was leaving early because she was upset that Trump didn't want to sleep with her. (On Thursday at the rally, Trump seemingly denied this, along with the other allegations, ever happened.)
The Huffington Post also spoke to Morgan about Boyne's allegations, and while Morgan confirmed that the dinner happened at Raoul's in the SoHo neighborhood of New York, she said she did not recall Trump making sexual advances on the models. "I don't remember any of that kind of behavior," Morgan told The Huffington Post. "But I have been known to dance on tables." Meanwhile, Trump and his spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, both denied Boyne's allegations, with Hicks telling The Huffington Post that "Mr. Trump never heard of this woman and would never do that."
Karen Beatrice, Boyne's roommate at the time of the incident, also could not confirm to The Huffington Post that any lewd behavior had taken place, despite Boyne saying that she had called Beatrice on the night of the dinner and spoken with her about it over the years.
Despite the skepticism she has encountered, Boyne told Bloom that she first started telling her story again earlier this year, when she read a New York Times article about how Trump allegedly treats women in private — because many of the claims in the article allegedly echoed her own experience. She said she then decided to speak out on video and go public with her story after hearing about the intimidation and harassment that Jane Doe reportedly faced for filing a lawsuit against Trump. "No woman should not be able to tell any store of abuse or violence or harassment because she feels threatened or abused or bullied," Boyne said. "I feel like Donald Trump and his surrogates, that's what they do to women."
Bloom, who has taken on Boyne's case following Jane Doe's decision to drop her lawsuit, tweeted last month that her law firm "will proudly represent any accusers sued by Donald Trump and crowd fund defense costs." Bloom is the daughter of women's rights lawyer Gloria Allred, and she has frequently taken on cases from marginalized people and survivors of sexual assault. In addition to working with women who have come forward to make allegations against Trump, she also represented women who spoke out against Bill Cosby. (Cosby has denied all allegations against him. His trial will start in 2017.)
