How a ‘strange sisterhood’ of #MeToo accusers is reacting to Trump’s indictment in hush money case
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They call themselves a “strange sisterhood.”
A friendship among nearly a dozen women was forged out of necessity and started years ago when they bonded over one commonality: They’ve all accused former President Donald Trump of sexual harassment or battery.
Six years later, the women still lean on each other, exchanging thoughts on an email chain. After Trump left a Manhattan courthouse last week, charged with more than two dozen counts of falsifying business records in connection with a New York hush money probe, an email from the chain hit their inboxes.
The subject line read: “34 felonies!” Two confetti emojis followed.
USA TODAY reached out to more than 20 women who say they are victims of Trump in the aftermath of his historic indictment. Eight said they weren’t comfortable speaking.
But four told USA TODAY the indictment is a sign of accountability to the law, but not to his character or treatment of women. While they view the indictment as a step closer to holding Trump accountable for his actions, they fear a repeat of 2016 where his alleged misconduct fuels his base and shields him from consequences heading into 2024.
Trump’s indictment, in part, hinges on his alleged role in hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. Though those women say their alleged encounters with Trump were consensual, Trump’s #MeToo accusers say they see a common thread between the former president and his supporters' behavior toward women then and now.
The former president has not made it easy for those who have come out against him. He has called his accusers “liars” and their reports “made-up stuff.” The payments to Daniels and McDougal were meant to silence them. And nicknames – like “horseface,” for Daniels – belittle the women who stand up to him.
“There is this millisecond of hope that maybe he will have to answer for at least some of his actions,” said Samantha Holvey, one of the women on the chain. “Then it was followed by the thought that his supporters probably won't even care.”
Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign, declined to comment, calling the women’s claims “false rumors and completely made-up allegations,” and threatening “serious legal jeopardy” for publishing their stories.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him in the criminal case.
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More: 19 women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct. Here's what their stories have in common.
‘I'm glad I didn't feel alone’
The email chain began in 2017 after three of the women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct – Holvey, Rachel Crooks and Jessica Leeds – gave a December press conference demanding a congressional investigation into harassment allegations against Trump, Holvey said.
In 2017, the White House released a statement calling the women’s claims “false” and “totally disputed in most cases by eyewitness accounts,” suggesting the accusations were politically motivated.
Holvey, 37, the 2006 Miss North Carolina USA, alleged in October 2016 that Trump inspected each of the pageant contestants individually, which made her feel like a “piece of meat” who was only "there for his pleasure.”
Over the years, more women have been added to their email thread.
“On one hand, I wish we didn't have each other. I wish there weren't so many women that he’s hurt,” Holvey said. “But on the other hand, I'm glad I didn't feel alone going through the experience.”
Rachel Crooks, 40, accused Trump of kissing her without consent when she worked as a receptionist at Trump Tower in the early 2000s. She said she empathizes with women who claim bullying and intimidation by the former president, such as Daniels and McDougal.
“I know just how rough it can be to have half a country feeling a certain way about you just because you spoke out and spoke the truth about this man and it can be really trying,” Crooks said.
An investigation by the Department of Justice found both Daniels and McDougal received hush money payments from the former president – $130,000 to Daniels before the 2016 election and $150,000 to McDougal. Both women claimed to have had sex with Trump, which he denied.
Daniels claimed she would “dance down the street” before Trump was charged. But after the former president sat before a judge in New York last week, her lawyer said in a statement she “feels bad that the guy has been charged.”
The women who spoke with USA TODAY said they’re grateful that women are central to the first indictment Trump faces. But they’re well aware that it comes at a cost.
Two women dealt a blow to Donald Trump's power: In a post-#MeToo era, will he fall?
2016 déjà vu
Trump’s indictment resurfaced similar feelings to how the women first felt after taking public stances against the former president.
On the day of the arraignment, Alva Johnson, 48, spent the afternoon flipping between cable TV news networks and reading live coverage online of Trump’s time in court. The day’s events brought back memories from 2016 when she worked as a staffer for the Trump campaign and accused the former president of kissing her without consent.
“It definitely does send you right back to the very first feeling of just knowing that unfortunately you're forever linked to such a vile human,” she said.
The White House in a 2019 statement called Johnson’s accusation "absurd on its face" and said her description of the events is "directly contradicted by multiple highly credible eyewitness accounts."
Crooks, who also accused Trump of kissing her without consent, recalled developing social anxiety after she came forward in 2016 while living in a region dominated by Trump supporters.
“People that I previously had good relationships with – it did cause a lot of strain in some of those areas,” Crooks said. “Because for some people, Trump is this god and they think he can do no wrong.”
“Even though they might have known me my whole life and trusted me, it just changed things,” she said.
Indictment bolsters Trump’s base
The women who came forward said their claims fell on deaf ears ahead of previous elections. Now, they worry 2024 could be the same.
“I think this indictment will actually strengthen his base and make him appear to be a martyr. I don't know that it's going to have a negative effect on him,” Holvey, the former pageant contestant, said. “It's free publicity, which he loves. And his base – they're not going to believe that he did anything wrong.”
Trump’s supporters and top Republicans have largely echoed the former president’s claims that the Manhattan probe is a “witch hunt” and akin to “political persecution.”
The New York investigation is not the only legal inquiry he faces. The former president remains under investigation by prosecutors in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., over efforts to overturn the 2020 election, holding onto classified documents after leaving office and the insurrection by supporters on Jan. 6, 2021.
Johnson, the former Trump campaign staffer, said Trump continues to feed talking points to Republican politicians and cable news networks that help to normalize his behavior and “build the propaganda” to normalize possible crimes ahead of the 2024 election.
Trump supporters have excused his offensive language against women as “locker room talk” and said those storming the Capitol were on a “normal tourist visit.”
“He's a criminal who continues to use political litigation as the excuse but it's really his weapon of choice,” Johnson said.
To Crooks, the indictment feels like “white noise” amid his third attempt at the White House.
“I would love for him to be held accountable,” she said. “But he’s wriggled his way out of so many things before that you just kind of lose a little bit of belief that it'll happen.”
But for Kristin Anderson, a photographer and former model who in 2016 said Trump inappropriately touched her at a New York City nightclub in the early 1990s, the indictment is one piece of a bigger picture.
“For all women who were abused and misused, every fragment of accountability adds up. We are getting closer and closer to freedom,” Anderson said in a statement to USA TODAY.
Trump campaign spokesperson Hope Hicks denied the incident in 2016 calling it a “total fabrication” and a "political attack designed to tear down Mr. Trump."
‘More than just this thing’
In the years since the women came forward, they've found ways to protect their peace.
Holvey – who recently picked out an engagement ring with her boyfriend and is a new puppy mom to a mini dachshund named Frank – has become an elder in a local church community.
Johnson enjoys music, writing and “sitting in the sun.”
Crooks lives close to her family in northwest Ohio and is renovating a home built in the 1860s. She plans to “do her yoga regularly” as the 2024 election nears.
“We are more than just this thing," Holvey said. "We are more than just being called liars by the president."
But as long as Trump remains a central figure in American politics, Crooks said she’s unsure she’ll ever be able to fully move forward.
“Sadly, as long as he is living and striving for a role in politics, probably not. He’s so prevalent,” she said of the former president. “But if and when his hold on the Republican Party and the people in this country subsides, then maybe. I certainly hope so.”
It’s not the New York probe that Trump’s accusers have their eyes on now; it’s writer E. Jean Carroll’s battery and defamation case against the former president.
Carroll claims that a chance encounter with Trump in a Bergdorf Goodman luxury department store nearly 30 years ago "took a dark turn" when he "forced her up against a dressing room wall, pinned her in place with his shoulder, and raped her," according to court documents.
The jury trial is set to begin on April 25. Trump has denied Carroll's claims.
“I'm watching E. Jean’s case very closely,” Holvey said. “I think that is the case in which women have the opportunity to be heard and believed.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump #MeToo accusers say indictment feels like ‘white noise’
