“Your article is reckless, defamatory and constitutes libel per se,” Marc E. Kasowitz, a lawyer representing Trump, wrote in an open letter to Times executive editor Dean Baquet. “We hereby demand that you immediately cease any further publication of this article, remove it from your website and issue a full and immediate retraction and apology. Failure to do so will leave my client with no option but to purse all available actions and remedies.”

The letter lacks any substantive facts to cast doubt on the Times story, and is not a lawsuit.

High-ranking sources within the Trump campaign had told CNNMoney that they were “drafting” lawsuits against both the Times and The Palm Beach Post, which published a separate story in which another women claimed Trump had groped her.

When Times reporter Megan Twohey interviewed Trump by phone on Tuesday night, “he threatened to sue us if we published these allegations,” Twohey told CNNMoney. She quoted Trump as saying that “none of this ever took place” and calling her “a disgusting human being.” Twohey also received a legal letter from a Trump attorney on Wednesday afternoon.