Photo: Getty
Yikes.
By Bernadette Giacomazzo — Written on Oct 13, 2019
If there's one thing we can all agree on, it's that Donald Trump has made a career out of being as offensive as possible. From the first time he told Billy Bush that he'd love nothing more than to grab a woman by her "p***y," he's made clear that the rules, such as they were, don't apply to him. (And thanks to Congress's inaction, he's felt even more emboldened.) But now, a new woman has come forward with claims of sexual assault, and thanks to him being embroiled in impeachment proceedings, this one just might be taken seriously. So who is Karen Johnson, Donald Trump's latest accuser?
A series of women have come forward to recount how Donald Trump assaulted them in a new book called All The President's Women. The book, which was written by journalists Barry Levine and Monique El-Faizy, features over 100 interviews with Trump's victims.
Karen Johnson is, according to Esquire, the latest woman to come forward. She's one of "43 allegations of alleged inappropriate behavior, including 26 instances of unwanted sexual contact," per the outlet.
Let's look at what else we know about her.
1. She was a regular at Mar-A-Lago.
According to Business Insider, Karen Johnson was a regular at Mar-A-Lago where she claims she was assaulted. The outlet reports that Johnson said Trump pulled her to the side and kissed her forcibly without consent, back when she visited the Palm Beach resort in the early 2000s. "I'm a tall girl and I had six-inch heels on, and I still remember looking up at him. And he's strong, and he just kissed me. I was so scared because of who he was...I don't even know where it came from. I didn't have a say in the matter," she said in the book excerpt.
2. Karen Johnson is the 23rd woman to accuse Donald Trump of sexual misconduct.
Even though one woman is one too many, Vox reports that Karen Johnson is actually the 23rd woman to accuse Trump of sexual misconduct. The outlet also reports that Johnson, unlike some of the other Trump accusers, has evidence of their non-consensual encounter, and that evidence includes photos and videos.
3. He allegedly assaulted Karen Johnson right before he proposed to Melania Knauss.
LE. SIGH. "In the period before he proposed to Melania, Trump engaged in a wave of allegedly unwanted touching," the book states, and goes into detail on one of the incidents at a Mar-a-Lago New Year's Eve celebration in the early 2000s," reported Newsweek, citing All The President's Women.
4. Karen Johnson says Donald Trump waited until her husband went home to assault her.
According to The Huffington Post, what is perhaps the worst part about this whole Karen Johnson scandal is the claim that Trump waited until Johnson's husband went home to assault her. HuffPo says that Johnson's husband has multiple sclerosis, which is why he couldn't stay throughout the night. And Trump, according to Johnson's testimony, knew this, which is why he waited until he left and Johnson was defenseless.
5. After the assault on New Year's Eve, Trump allegedly continued to stalk Karen Johnson.
Jezebel reports that after he assaulted Karen Johnson, Trump allegedly continued to try to stalk her. The outlet reports that Trump tried to fly Karen Johnson out to New York City, claiming that her husband "would never know" that they were together, almost as if to imply that they were having a consensual sexual affair.
6. Some political commentators think this latest claim will be swept under the rug, as well.
"Even when Trump was accused of outright rape by the writer E. Jean Carroll earlier this year, it amounted to a blip. Partly this may be because the media didn't give it enough attention. But it's also true that Trump's base has shown a willingness to simply ignore whatever ugly behavior their leader is accused of. A majority of the president's supporters and congressional Republicans appear to not care about any of this," suggests Vice Magazine, and unfortunately, they may have a point.
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, and photographer whose work has appeared in People, Teen Vogue, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and more. She is also the author of The Uprising series. For more information about Bernadette Giacomazzo, click here.