Freedom Kids lawsuit, sexual harassment claims, ‘Rocket Man’: 5 Trump controversies you might've forgotten

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Alva Johnson sexual harassment allegation

President Trump makes remarks during the signing ceremony of his executive order on liability protections for social media companies at the White House in Washington, D.C. on May 28, 2020. | YouTube/Fox News via screenshot

Many Americans are familiar with numerous women who have accused Trump of sexual harassment and even sexual assault, with considerable litigation being tied to the allegations.

In May of last year, a jury even found Trump liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s, with her being awarded $5 million. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

While the vast majority of the allegations are typically based on alleged actions taken years or even decades before Trump entered politics, at least one accusation came from more recent history.

Alva Johnson, a former Trump campaign staffer, filed a lawsuit in February 2019 claiming that Trump had kissed her at a campaign rally held in Florida in August 2016 without her consent.

The Trump administration denied the allegation, with spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders calling it “absurd on its face” and “directly contradicted by multiple highly credible eye witness accounts.”

In September of 2019, months after filing the complaint, Johnson would drop her lawsuit. Though she maintained her story was true, she also believed that it would be too hard to legally challenge “a person with unlimited resources.”