Former President Donald Trump allegedly groped a journalist while his pregnant wife Melania was in another room, according to testimony in his ongoing rape trial.

Natasha Stoynoff testified on Wednesday that she was on assignment at Mar-a-Lago in 2005 to write about Trump’s first wedding anniversary with Melania. During a break in the photoshoot, Stoynoff claims that Trump pushed her against a wall and kissed her.

‘I’m thinking wow, really nice room and I hear the door shut behind me,’ Stoynoff, tearing up, told jurors weighing columnist E Jean Carroll’s rape allegations against Trump.

‘By the time I turned around he had his hands on my shoulder and was pushing me against the wall and kissing me. I tried to push him away.

‘He came toward me again and I tried to shove him again. He was kissing me. He was against me, just holding my shoulder back.

‘I didn’t say any words. I was in shock. No words came out of my mouth. I remember just sort of mumbling.’

Stoynoff said a butler entered the room and said that Melania, who was pregnant with Barron, was done getting dressed and could continue with a photoshoot. She claimed that Trump left, but told her in the pool area, ‘Oh you know we’re going to have an affair’, and said he would give her the ‘best sex you’ll ever have’. Stoynoff said Trump also offered to take her to a Peter Luger steakhouse.

When Melania entered the room, Trump acted ‘doting’ toward her, said Stoynoff, adding that she continued the interview to the best of her ability.

Stoynoff said she did not tell her bosses at People about the encounter because she did not want to create problems though she felt ‘ashamed and humiliated’.

The journalist added that she ran into Melania outside Trump Tower in New York after some time had passed and was asked why they did not see her again. Stoynoff said she made an excuse and did not reveal the alleged groping.

Stoynoff testified on the same day that Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina said that the ex-president would not present witnesses in the rape trial. Trump spent this week in Scotland where he is opening a new golf course, and will not appear in court.

Also on Wednesday, the jury was shown a 45-minute video deposition that Trump gave for the case in October.

‘If it did happen, it would have been reported within minutes,’ said Trump of Carroll’s claims that he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s.

‘It’s the most ridiculous, disgusting story. It’s just made up.’

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