By Michael A. Memoli
Tribune Washington Bureau
Another woman has come forward accusing Donald Trump of making unwanted sexual advances, saying the decades-old encounter left her feeling shame and disgust.
Speaking at a New York news conference Thursday, Karena Virginia described leaving the U.S. Open tennis tournament in Flushing, New York, in 1998 and as she waited to be picked up, she noticed Donald Trump among a group of men looking at her and commenting on her appearance.
Trump then approached her, grabbed her right arm and touched her breast, she said. When she flinched, he responded: “Don’t you know who I am?” Virginia said.
“I felt intimidated and I felt powerless.”
Virginia, joined by attorney Gloria Allred, insisted she had not come forward at the behest of any rival campaign. Many advised her not to speak out, she added, for fear that Trump would attack her as he has other women who have come forward with similar stories in recent days.
“Perhaps he will label me as just another nasty woman,” she said, referring to a Trump put-down of Hillary Clinton in Wednesday’s debate.
But Virginia said she felt it her “duty as a woman, as a mother, a human being, and as an American citizen to speak out and tell the truth about what happened to me.”
She and Allred said they did not intend to file any criminal complaint.
During the debate, Trump said that the recent other accusations had been debunked and insisted no one had greater respect for women than him. Neither he nor his campaign has responded to the latest charge against him.
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