Swiss former model accuses Trump of 1993 sexual assault

A Swiss former model says Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in a suite at New York’s Plaza Hotel in 1993. SRF reports that Béatrice Keul, now 56, says the incident happened during a beauty pageant where she also met Jeffrey Epstein.

Keul’s path into pageants began with the 1992 Miss Switzerland contest, where she was named runner-up. The trained bank clerk, then 22, later competed for Miss Europe and said she had entered the pageant world by chance. She recalled that her appearance attracted the wrong people.

A few weeks later, Keul received an invitation to “The American Dream Pageant” in New York, signed by its organiser, Trump. She joined about 60 other women. At a press event at the Plaza Hotel, she says, Trump flirted with her and promised to send someone to bring her to him later so they could continue talking. “I trusted him, I was blind,” she said.

Keul says Epstein approached her soon afterwards. She said she had not heard his name before and that he offered to take her away and look after her. His approach made her suspicious, she recalled, though she spoke with him because he described himself as “Donald’s best friend.”

SRF reports that Trump owned the Miss Universe organisation, including the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA competitions, in the early 1990s. Epstein, a multimillionaire and sex offender, moved in overlapping circles and sought to recruit young women from that world, according to the report.