Donald Trump hit with another groping claim

Donald Trump (Getty)
Donald Trump (Getty)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump faces a fresh allegation of groping, even as his running mate promised that evidence casting doubt on other accusations of sexual misconduct would be made public soon.

The Washington Post published an interview with a woman who said Mr Trump put his hand up her skirt in a crowded New York nightclub in the early 1990s in an unwanted advance.

"He did touch my vagina through my underwear, absolutely," Kristin Anderson said in a video interview on the newspaper's website.

"It wasn't a sexual come-on. I don't know why he did it. It was like just to prove that he could do it," she told the paper.

MS Anderson could not immediately be reached for comment. Trump campaign spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Post reported that Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said the candidate "strongly denies this phony allegation by someone looking to get some free publicity. It is totally ridiculous."

Mr Trump's White House campaign has been scrambling to recover from the release a week ago of a 2005 video in which he bragged about groping women and making unwanted sexual advances.

While Mr Trump said the video was just talk and he had never behaved in this way, multiple women subsequently went public with allegations of sexual misconduct against the New York real estate magnate going back three decades.

Mr Trump furiously denied the allegations, saying The New York Times, which published two women's claims, and other media, along with his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, were engaged in a vicious campaign to stop him winning the November 8 election.

Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence vigorously defended Mr Trump.

"Stay tuned. I know there's more information that's going to be coming out that will back his claim that this is all categorically false," Pence told CBS show This Morning.

In Los Angeles, celebrity attorney Gloria Allred planned a news conference on Friday with a woman she said will accuse Mr Trump of victimising her.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Mr Trump would accuse Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim - the top shareholder in the New York Times Company - of helping to generate reports of the sexual misconduct.

The Times reported on Wednesday that two women said they had endured unwanted groping or kisses from the former TV personality. Several other women made allegations of sexual aggression by Mr Trump in various media outlets following that report.

The Times said on Thursday it stood by its story and rejected charges the article was libellous after a lawyer for Mr Trump threatened legal action and demanded a retraction.

Mr Trump will claim that Slim, as a donor to the Clinton Foundation charity who also holds a 17.35 percent stake in the New York Times, has an interest in helping her White House campaign, the Wall Street Journal said, citing a campaign adviser.

"I know why I get bad treatment in the New York Times. Because it's owned by Mexico," Mr Trump said at a February rally in Nevada. "I don't know if you know, a rich guy in Mexico actually has power at the New York Times. I wonder why they don't like us, you know, I just wonder," he said.

New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr said in a statement, "Carlos Slim is an excellent shareholder who fully respects boundaries regarding the independence of our journalism. He has never sought to influence what we report."

Reuters