A former beauty pageant contestant who previously said she fought off a sexual advance from President Donald Trump in 1993 now says he raped her.
Beatrice Keul told legislative staffers this year that the assault happened after she met Jeffrey Epstein, according to a new report from House Judiciary Committee Democrats, HuffPost reported.
Keul, who is Swiss, told Democratic committee staff in a series of interviews that the assault took place in November 1993 at Trump’s Plaza Hotel in Atlantic City, according to the report. She said she met Trump at a pageant event there, and he offered to arrange a U.S. visa and admission to New York University for her. She then met Epstein, who introduced himself as “Don’s best friend.” Later, she was invited to a room upstairs.
“Trump reportedly grabbed Keul from behind and forcibly raped her; in the process, tearing her dress and causing bleeding and bruising on multiple parts of her body,” the report says. “Keul described the rape as ‘brutal.’”
According to the report, Trump then sat Keul on the edge of the bed, repeated his promises about the visa and NYU, and made her promise to keep quiet, telling her “the show must go on.”
Keul’s account has changed over time. In an October 2024 interview with the Daily Mail, she said Trump “jumped” on her and groped her, but that after she “tried everything I could,” she eventually persuaded him to stop. She was 24 at the time.
In June, she told PunchUp the encounter was “violent,” that she was “screaming for help,” and that Trump warned her “bad things can happen,” though she still described groping, not rape.
The new report does not explain why her account changed, and it does not include transcripts of her interviews. Her statements to committee staff are the only evidence it offers for the allegation.
Democrats say Keul’s account fits a pattern seen in other allegations against Trump, including E. Jean Carroll’s. In May 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll, and the judge later called her rape accusation “substantially true.”
The report says a “growing body of evidence” shows Trump “was an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women during the mid-to-late 1990s.”
The report also accuses the administration of illegally blocking the full release of the Epstein files, and says Attorney General Todd Blanche “may have engaged in criminal obstruction of justice.” If Democrats win the House, the Judiciary Committee would lead any impeachment effort.
Trump has long denied any sexual misconduct involving women connected to Epstein, and the White House said none of the allegations in the report are true.
“This ‘report’ is nothing more than a desperate attempt by crazed Democrats to distract Americans from the surging Republican momentum driven by President Trump’s historic achievements,” spokeswoman Lauren Bis said.
