In the closing days of the election, celebrity attorney Gloria Allred has trotted out an eleventh woman making claims of “sexual assault” against Donald Trump. Cable news mavens have been assuring us repeatedly that the Clinton campaign (which Allred vocally supports) had absolutely nothing to do with this, but the details of this latest allegation are making this newest accuser look a bit like the toad at the garden party. The alleged victim of Trump’s predatory behavior in this case is Jessica Drake, who was previously best known for her work in the, er… adult entertainment industry. (WARNING: The filmography at that link contains some exceedingly NSFW titles.) Her story is raising a few eyebrows. (US Magazine)

“Ten years ago, I was working for Wicked Pictures, an adult film company, at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe,” the adult entertainment actress said during the press conference. “I was at Wicked’s booth when I met Donald Trump in the celebrity gift room early in the morning before he teed off. He flirted with me and invited me to walk along the golf course with him, which I did. During that time, he asked me for my phone number, which I gave to him. Later that evening, he invited me to his room. I said I didn’t feel right going alone, so two other women came with me.”

To get an important point out of the way up front, there is nothing disqualifying about a person who worked in the adult film industry claiming to be the victim of assault. For that matter, I’m not going to dismiss someone from any activity for such work assuming it was all legal. Some might go so far as to say that those who engage in “screwing” people on camera for money are a bit more honest about their occupations than some politicians who do the figurative equivalent to their constituents behind closed doors and probably bring down a lot more cash. But the real question here is not so much the accuracy of her story, but whether or not the events described constitute sexual assault.

Susan Wright at Redstate – an ardent critic of Donald Trump – said she was fighting back that sharp, stinging bile taste at the back of her throat, but had to ask the same questions running through my mind.

I am void of any outrage over this story.

Instead, I’m left with this sick, disgusted feeling, that there are actual victims out there, but because of an overzealous celebrity attorney and the circus caused by the timing of their sudden reveals, this ridiculous woman has seen an opportunity to grab her own moment in the spotlight, so she took advantage of it.

This was her chance to be seen by millions, with her clothes on, for a change. It’s better to be filmed by news crews, flanked by a well-coifed attorney in a power suit than it is to be seen in some seedy, back-alley peep show venue, by dirty guys in stained sweatpants, smelling of stale beer, I guess.

Am I being unfair?

I don’t think Susan is being unfair at all. Ms. Drake describes a series of events which don’t add up to much even if they are 100% accurate. (For the record Trump denies all of this.) She accepted invitations to visit Trump on a golf course and in a hotel suite along with two other women. He allegedly “hugged and kissed” all three of them when they arrived, though “without permission.” They talked for as long as “30 or 45 minutes” and left. Later she claims that an agent of Trump’s contacted her again trying to get her back in his room and The Donald himself then offered her $10K in exchange. She declined, offering an excuse that she had to return to LA for work.

There’s simply no way to verify this unless we can dig up the representative who made the initial call. But let’s say that the entire thing is true. As Susan Wright points out, that would basically be a case of… well, I’ll let her describe it.

She gets paid to have sex for the cameras. He was asking her to get paid – possibly a lot more than she was making in those cheap films – to do it in private. Not cool, but…

How much credence you give this story depends entirely on the amount of faith you want to place in both Gloria Allred and this adult film star, keeping in mind yet again that this is a story which suddenly surfaces – as if by miraculous intervention – two weeks before the election. And even if you believe them, it might speak to Trump’s personality and character in terms of pursuing a night with a porn star, but it certainly doesn’t sound like sexual assault.

Politics is a dirty game to begin with and it’s gotten a lot dirtier this year.