Five days after the Access Hollywood recording rocked Donald Trump's presidential campaign, another crisis erupted.
Women began publicly accusing Trump of doing things similar to conduct he had described on the recording.
They alleged unwanted kissing.
Groping.
Touching without consent.
The accusations involved different women, different locations and incidents they said occurred years — sometimes decades — earlier.
Trump denied them.
He called the stories fabricated, politically motivated and part of an effort to destroy his presidential campaign.
The allegations were not established in court at the time.
But their emergence created an immediate problem for Trump because of something he had said only three days earlier.
Asked during the second presidential debate whether he had ever actually engaged in the conduct he described on the Access Hollywood recording, Trump had answered:
“No, I have not.”
Now women were publicly saying otherwise.
Jessica Leeds
One of the first women to come forward was Jessica Leeds.
Leeds told The New York Times that she had encountered Trump while traveling on an airplane decades earlier.
According to Leeds, a flight attendant moved her into an available first-class seat next to Trump.
She alleged that after they had been sitting together for a period of time, Trump began touching her.
Leeds said he grabbed her breasts and attempted to put his hand underneath her skirt.
She described him as being “like an octopus.”
“His hands were everywhere,” she said.
Leeds said she eventually got up and moved to another part of the airplane.
Trump denied that the encounter happened.
Rachel Crooks
Rachel Crooks described a very different encounter.
In 2005, Crooks was 22 years old and working as a receptionist for a company located in Trump Tower.
She told The New York Times that she encountered Trump outside an elevator and introduced herself.
According to Crooks, Trump shook her hand and then began kissing her on the cheeks.
Then, she alleged, he kissed her directly on the mouth without her consent.
Crooks said she was shocked.
She later told her boyfriend and sister about the encounter.
Trump denied Crooks' account as well.
His campaign called the Times story “fiction” and accused the newspaper of participating in a politically motivated effort to defeat him.
Natasha Stoynoff
Then came another allegation.
This one came from a journalist who had covered Trump professionally.
Natasha Stoynoff had worked as a writer for People magazine.
In 2005, she traveled to Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate to interview Trump and his wife, Melania, for a story marking their first wedding anniversary.
According to Stoynoff, Melania — who was pregnant at the time — temporarily left the room.
Trump offered to show Stoynoff around the property.
Stoynoff alleged that when they entered another room, Trump suddenly pushed her against a wall and kissed her without her consent.
She wrote that she struggled to get away.
The encounter ended, according to Stoynoff, when someone entered to tell them Melania would soon return.
Trump denied her allegation.
His campaign described Stoynoff's account as another politically motivated fabrication.
Mindy McGillivray
That same period brought another accusation from Florida.
Mindy McGillivray said she had encountered Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2003 while assisting a photographer covering a Ray Charles concert.
McGillivray alleged that Trump suddenly grabbed her buttocks.
She said she immediately told the photographer she was assisting what had happened.
The photographer later confirmed that McGillivray had told him about the alleged incident at the time, although he said he had not personally witnessed it.
Trump's spokeswoman denied the allegation.
Why They Were Speaking Now
One of the obvious questions was why these stories were emerging during the final weeks of a presidential campaign.
Several of the women explained that Trump's own statements had prompted them to come forward.
The Access Hollywood recording had been published on October 7.
On the recording, Trump described pursuing a married woman and talked crudely about kissing and grabbing women.
Trump apologized for the remarks and characterized them as “locker-room talk.”
Then, during the October 9 presidential debate, moderator Anderson Cooper pressed him on whether he had actually done the things he described.
Trump denied it.
For some of the women, that denial became the catalyst.
They said they believed Trump had behaved toward them in ways resembling the conduct he had described.
Trump Responds With Fury
Trump didn't merely deny the allegations.
He attacked them.
Speaking at a campaign rally, Trump described his accusers as “horrible, horrible liars.”
He said the allegations were “vicious” and “absolutely false.”
Trump also accused the news media and political establishment of coordinating an effort to destroy his candidacy.
He promised that evidence disproving the accusations would eventually be released.
His campaign threatened legal action against The New York Times and demanded that the newspaper retract its story about Leeds and Crooks.
The newspaper refused.
Trump Attacks the Accusers' Credibility
Trump also began personally attacking some of the women making accusations against him.
Discussing Natasha Stoynoff's allegation at a rally, Trump encouraged the audience to judge whether they believed he would have pursued her.
“Look at her,” Trump said.
“Look at her words.”
Then:
“You tell me what you think. I don't think so.”
The implication was widely interpreted as an attack on Stoynoff's appearance.
Trump argued more broadly that his accusers were seeking publicity or participating in a political campaign against him.
The women denied those accusations.
More Women Follow
The initial stories did not end the controversy.
Additional women subsequently came forward with allegations of unwanted kissing, groping or other inappropriate behavior.
Some had connections to Trump's businesses.
Some had participated in beauty pageants he owned.
Others said they encountered him socially.
Former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos publicly accused Trump of unwanted sexual advances.
Kristin Anderson alleged that Trump reached underneath her skirt at a nightclub during the 1990s.
Cathy Heller alleged that Trump attempted to kiss her without her consent at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump or his representatives denied the accusations.
By the middle of October, the controversy had expanded far beyond a single recording.
Allegations Are Not Findings of Fact
The distinction is important.
These women were making allegations.
Trump denied them.
Many of the alleged incidents had occurred years earlier and had not resulted in contemporaneous criminal proceedings.
Some of the women's accounts were supported by people who said the women had told them about the alleged incidents before the 2016 presidential campaign or before publication.
Those witnesses generally did not claim to have seen the encounters themselves.
Their accounts therefore supported the proposition that some women had previously told others similar stories.
They did not independently prove the underlying allegations.
Trump maintained that the accusations were false.
“Locker-Room Talk” Meets Real-World Accusations
The political significance of the allegations was impossible to separate from the Access Hollywood recording.
Trump had been recorded saying:
“When you're a star, they let you do it.”
During the presidential debate, he insisted that his words were merely talk.
He said he had never actually engaged in the conduct he described.
Then women began appearing publicly and alleging that he had.
That did not automatically establish that their allegations were true.
But it changed the nature of the controversy.
The question was no longer only what Trump had said aboard the Access Hollywood bus in 2005.
It was whether his recorded words described behavior that had actually occurred.
Trump said they did not.
His accusers said they did.
Trump Says the Election Is Being Rigged
Trump increasingly connected the accusations to a broader argument about the election.
He accused major news organizations of working with Hillary Clinton and the political establishment to defeat him.
He said the allegations had been manufactured because his opponents feared his campaign.
The media, Trump told supporters, was attempting to influence the election by publishing false stories about him.
His campaign portrayed the controversy as evidence that powerful institutions were aligned against him.
The newspapers and magazines publishing the allegations defended their reporting.
The Final Weeks of the Campaign
The accusations arrived with less than a month remaining before Election Day.
Trump was simultaneously campaigning against Hillary Clinton, responding to the Access Hollywood tape and defending himself against a growing number of women accusing him of misconduct.
It was one of the most extraordinary stretches of the 2016 campaign.
The controversy also presented voters with competing accounts that could not simply be reconciled.
Trump said the women were lying.
The women said the incidents happened.
Some said they had remained silent for years because they had never expected the man they were accusing to become a major-party nominee for president.
Others said Trump's televised denial finally convinced them to speak publicly.
Trump's answer remained categorical.
None of it happened.
From a Recording to Accusations
The Access Hollywood tape had initially presented Americans with Trump's own words.
The next phase was fundamentally different.
These were accusations about his actions.
Jessica Leeds said Trump groped her on an airplane.
Rachel Crooks said he kissed her without consent outside an elevator.
Natasha Stoynoff said he pushed her against a wall and kissed her.
Mindy McGillivray said he grabbed her at Mar-a-Lago.
Others soon told their own stories.
Trump denied them.
He called the allegations lies.
He attacked the credibility and, in some cases, the appearance of his accusers.
And he argued that the entire controversy was part of an organized political campaign against him.
Just days earlier, Trump had been asked whether the conduct he described on the Access Hollywood tape had ever actually happened.
“No,” he said.
“I have not.”
Within days, women across the country were publicly challenging that answer.