Which women accused Donald Trump of sexual assault or harassment and what are their allegations
Executive summary
Multiple mainstream outlets and compendia report that dozens of women have publicly accused Donald Trump of sexual harassment, assault, or related misconduct over several decades; notable among them is E. Jean Carroll, whom a civil jury found liable for sexually abusing her and defaming her, with juries awarding millions in damages [1] [2]. Estimates in the reporting range from “more than a dozen” to dozens or even as many as 69 women, depending on how sources count allegations and definitions of misconduct [3] [4] [5].
1. The one case the courts have resolved: E. Jean Carroll—what was alleged and what juries found
E. Jean Carroll publicly accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid‑1990s; a New York jury in May 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and for defaming her, awarding her $5 million in that civil case, and subsequent rulings and appeals have produced additional monetary penalties upheld on appeal [1] [2] [6]. Reporting and court documents show the jury concluded the assault occurred as Carroll described, while the jury did not accept a statutory rape charge as defined under New York penal law in some filings; Carroll pursued both battery under the Adult Survivors Act and defamation claims [2] [7].
2. The broader tally: dozens of accusers, different counts and definitions
News outlets and researchers use varying criteria to count accusations: contemporary reporting cites “more than a dozen” women in some summaries [3] and catalogs or books have catalogued 26 incidents or higher, while some commentators and compilations put the figure far higher—dozens up to claims of 69—often including a mix of harassment, groping, non‑consensual kissing, and other inappropriate behavior spanning the 1980s through the 2010s [8] [9] [5]. Different sources group incidents differently (e.g., whether to include allegations reported only in books or those later disputed), so totals are not uniform across outlets [9] [4].
3. Representative named accusers and the allegations commonly reported
Prominent named accusers who appear across multiple reports include E. Jean Carroll (dressing‑room assault allegation), Amy Dorris (forcible kissing and groping at the 1997 US Open), Jessica Drake (alleging unwanted kisses during a 2006 hotel encounter), Jill Harth (lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and attempted rape), Karena Virginia (alleged groping at the US Open), Stacey Williams (alleged groping at a party, linked in some accounts to Jeffrey Epstein’s circle), and others; outlets like The Guardian and The Independent have compiled timelines summarizing many of these accounts [8] [9] [10] [5]. Reporting emphasizes a range from verbal harassment to allegations of non‑consensual touching, with corroborating witnesses or contemporaneous accounts cited in some instances and denied or disputed by Trump and his spokespeople in others [8] [2].
4. How Trump and his allies have responded, and legal limits of civil findings
Trump and his representatives have consistently denied the allegations, called them politically motivated, or disputed specific details; the White House and lawyers labeled many claims “unequivocally false” or politically driven in contemporary coverage [8] [11]. Civil judgments (such as in Carroll’s case) are judgments of liability in a civil context and not criminal convictions; many other accusations never resulted in criminal charges, and outlets note that the ex‑president “has never been criminally charged for any sexual misconduct” in coverage that predates 2025 developments [10].
5. Patterns, context, and investigative limits in the reporting
Several journalists and scholars frame the accumulation of allegations as a “pattern” of alleged behavior across decades, and some books and academic pieces call for broader inquiry or a formal study to contextualize the allegations and barriers survivors face in pursuing remedies [12] [8]. However, the sources show uneven documentation—some allegations include contemporaneous witnesses or are corroborated in interviews, while others are based on later recollections; sources differ on how they classify severity and timing, which affects totals and interpretation [9] [4].
6. What current reporting does not settle and where readers should be cautious
Available sources do not offer a single authoritative list that proves every allegation; counts vary and many allegations have not been litigated or criminally prosecuted [9] [5]. Readers should note when accounts are civil jury findings (Carroll), when they are contemporaneous or corroborated reports, and when they are contested or denied by Trump; some recent documents released around Jeffrey Epstein renewed scrutiny but do not themselves adjudicate claims against Trump [13] [14].
Conclusion — what to take away: mainstream coverage documents a large number of allegations spanning decades and one civil jury finding of liability (E. Jean Carroll), while totals and interpretations differ by outlet and methodology; evaluate individual claims on their evidence and whether they were resolved in court, and note that Trump and his team have consistently denied the accusations [1] [2] [8].