Trump accuser was 'rattled' after alleged sex assault, former teacher says
'She didn't know what to do, she was very conflicted,' Natasha Stoynoff's former instructor says
The journalism instructor who taught the woman accusing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump of sexual assault says she was "really rattled" after he spoke to his former student over the phone soon after the incident.
Paul McLaughlin, who taught Natasha Stoynoff at Ryerson University in Toronto, told CBC's The Current that Stoynoff called him in 2005, crying.
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"She didn't know what to do," he said. "She was very conflicted. She was angry."
As a People magazine reporter, Stoynoff wrote she was "attacked" in 2005 by Trump, who she says kissed her, "forcing his tongue down my throat" during a tour of Mar-a-Lago, a private club owned by the Trump Organization in Palm Beach, Fla.
Trump has called the allegations "outright lies."
McLaughlin said Stoynoff was "really confused about how to deal with" the incident because of Trump's status.
"She was writing for People magazine, and Donald Trump was a cover story person," he said.
In 2005, Natasha Stoynoff phoned me, distraught, crying. Said Trump assaulted her. She is telling truth. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/natashastoynoff?src=hash">#natashastoynoff</a>
—@paulmclI was her former jlsm prof/mentor. She didn't know what to do and wanted advice. She was crying and angry. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/natashastoynoff?src=hash">#natashastoynoff</a>.
—@paulmclNatasha/I discussed what to do re Trump. We both thought he would try to destroy her if she charged him. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/natashastoynoff?src=hash">#natashastoynoff</a>
—@paulmclIt was tough decision but in a he said/she said we believed she would lose. He seemed rather nasty at the time.
—@paulmclMcLaughlin said he told Stoynoff the incident "basically was going to be a he-said-she-said," and he believed that, if she did come forward, Trump would "come at her with guns a-blazing."
Responding to McLaughlin's account, Mica Mosbacher, former finance co-chair of the Republican National Convention and Fox News commentator, dismissed it as "hearsay."
"It is one individual, one person, whose credibility I don't know," she told The Current. "This is not a court room. We're playing this out in public media. I don't think that that's fair."
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Mosbacher also said the media should focus attention on the sexual assault allegation laid against Bill Clinton, the former U.S. president and husband to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
"I also don't think it's fair, the fact that we have not heard one tape or one comment about Bill Clinton and what he has done and the women who have come forward alleging rape, alleging actual assault on the record, versus this kind of hearsay with Donald Trump," she said.
