Three women accuse Gordon Sondland of sexual misconduct
Three women have publicly accused U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, a key player in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, of sexual misconduct relating to their business dealings with him, The Hill reported.
The allegations were reported in an article co-published Wednesday by ProPublica and Portland Monthly and date back to before Sondland became ambassador.
All three women described unwanted kissing or attempted kissing by Sondland, a hotelier. One of the accusers said he exposed himself to her, and all three said he retaliated against them professionally after they spurned his advances.
Sondland strongly denied the accusations.
"In decades of my career in business and civic affairs, my conduct can be affirmed by hundreds of employees and colleagues with whom I have worked in countless circumstances. These untrue claims of unwanted touching and kissing are concocted and, I believe, coordinated for political purposes," Sondland said in a statement to the two news outlets.
The allegations were made by Nicole Vogel, Jana Solis and Natalie Sept, who all agreed to be named publicly.
Sondland's attorney Jim McDermott accused the women on trying to undercut Sondland's testimony in the impeachment probe.
“Given the timing of your intended story, a reasonable conclusion to be drawn is that you are attempting to affect Ambassador Sondland’s credibility as a fact witness in the pending impeachment inquiry,” he told the news outlets. “Given the politically charged climate in which current events are unfolding, some might consider this to be veiled witness tampering.”