Stephanie Grisham, who served as White House press secretary under Donald Trump, claimed she witnessed the then-president’s sexual harassment firsthand.
She told CNN that she had to try to protect one staffer in particular that Trump would request accompany him on trips.
“He one time had one of my other deputies bring her back so that they could look at her ass, is what he said to him,” she alleged. “I sat down and talked to her at one point, asked her if she was uncomfortable. I tried everything I could to ensure she was never alone with him.”
She said she spoke to a couple different chiefs of staff, including Mark Meadows, about Trump’s behaviour.
“I think, at the end of the day, what could they do other than go in there and say, ‘This isn’t good, sir’?” she said. “Donald Trump will do what Donald Trump wants to do.”
Grisham’s comments came hours after a civil jury found the former president liable for sexual abuse and defamation in a case brought by writer E Jean Carroll.
Grisham said Trump would often comment on people’s looks and plastic surgery and such.
“But with this one staffer, it was really bad, to the point that I was extremely uncomfortable,” she said, adding that all senior White House staffers at the time knew about the situation.
“I did everything I could to keep her off of trips actually and to stay with her if she was with him alone because I was really nervous about what could happen,” she added.
She did not name the staffer, but she has recounted the details before and wrote about the incidents in her book.
Critics slammed her for doing nothing when these and other alarming incidents took place, but cashing in by writing a book about it afterward.
“I frankly see no redeeming quality in this woman or any of the Trump accomplices who now want to clear their names and want to make a buck,” CNN political commentator Ana Navarro said at the time.