On December 2, 2004, Donald Trump was a guest on the long-running radio show “Imus in the Morning” with Don Imus. The two were discussing the case of Florida middle school teacher Debra Beasley Lafave, 23, who had been charged with statutory rape for allegedly having sex with a 14 year old middle school student. The case drew a lot of public attention, and when the pretrial publicity took a toll on the victim, the victim’s family asked prosecutors to work out a plea deal with Lafave so the victim could avoid having to testify at trial. In 2005, Lafave plead guilty to two counts of lewd or lascivious battery against a teenager and entered into a plea agreement for three years’ home confinement and lifetime registration as a sex offender. Despite pleading guilty to two felonies that could have earned her 15 years in prison, Lafave did not serve any prison time.
In his comments on Imus’s show, Donald Trump made light of the teacher’s sexual assault on the boy.
Trump is a convicted felon and adjudicated sexual abuser who is now president of the United States. He ran for office on the promise that he would use the powers of his office to get revenge against people he believes have wronged him, and he is doing so.
On May 9, 2023, a jury found Trump civilly liable for sexually abusing columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996 and awarded her $5 million. Trump spent years mocking, insulting, ridiculing and dismissing Carroll over her accusations before a jury vindicated her in court. At least 28 women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct since the 1970s, alleging Trump engaged various offenses against them in rape, kissing, groping without consent, walking in on teenage beauty pageant contestants in a state of undress without giving them notice, and looking up women’s skirts.
In April of 2016 and September 2016 (pdfs), a woman who used the pseudonyms “Katie Johnson” and “Jane Doe” filed, and then refiled, a lawsuit against Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein for raping her in a “savage sexual attack” when she was 13 years old, in 1994. A woman using the pseudonym “TiffanyDoe” signed an affidavit dated June 18, 2016, in support of Katie Johnson’s account, saying she personally witnessed Trump and Epstein raping and abusing females as young as 12 years of age, including Katie Johnson. Tiffany Doe also said the two men threatened the lives of the girls they abused, and the lives of their family members, if they told anyone about the abuse. Tiffany Doe wrote,
“I am coming forward to swear to the truthfulness of the physical and sexual abuse that I personally witnessed of minor females at the hands of Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein, including the Plaintiff, during the time of my employment from the years of 1990-2000 for Mr. Epstein. I swear to these facts under penalty of perjury even though I fully understand that the life of myself and my family is now in grave danger.”
Katie Johnson dropped her lawsuit, reportedly after receiving threats. She has not refiled it.
