Woman alleging Trump raped her at 13 cancels news conference over death threats
Trump attorney has denied the accusations calling them 'completely frivolous', 'baseless'
A woman suing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for allegedly raping her when she was 13-years-old abruptly canceled a news conference planned for Wednesday after receiving death threats.
Under the pseudonym "Jane Doe", the woman has filed a lawsuit accusing the 70-year-old business mogul of raping her on four occasions in 1994 at parties hosted by disgraced financier Jeffery Epstein, including one instance in which she says Trump tied her to a bed.
Doe, identified in earlier lawsuits as "Katie Johnson", was expected Wednesday to detail allegations against Trump and reveal her true identity.
"Jane Doe has received numerous threats today," attorney Lisa Bloom told journalists and news crews who had assembled at her Woodland Hills law office in Los Angeles.
"She has decided she is too afraid to show her face...She is in terrible fear," Bloom said.
A formal declaration submitted with Doe's most recent lawsuits claims Trump hit her in the face and threatened to harm both her and her family should she reveal details of the alleged assault.
Two other unnamed women are also said to have submitted declarations in the case, including one woman who says while working as an event planner for Epstein she was ordered to find "attractive adolescent women" to attend his parties and who says she "personally witnessed [Doe] being forced to perform various sexual acts with Donald J. Trump and Mr. Epstein," POLITICO reports.
Trump's attorney Alan Garten has vehemently denied the accusations on behalf of his client, calling them "untrue", "completely frivolous", "baseless", and "irresponsible."
The credibility of the claims have been questioned by various media outlets, in part over apparent links to anti-Trump campaigner and former 'Jerry Springer Show' producer Norm Lubow, who has been previously associated with other disputed celebrity claims.
An investigtion by The Guardian in July linked Lubow through shared e-mail addresses and phone numbers to a publicist calling himself "Al Taylor" who had shopped around a video tape relating to Doe and her allegations with a $1 million price tag.
Lubow has been connected to other contentious claims, including allegations that rocker Courtney Love offered a fellow musician $50,000 to murder her husband, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, the paper reported.
Doe's civil lawsuit will go before a New York district court beginning December 16.
(Staff with agencies)