Former Miss Switzerland Beatrice Keul has accused US President Donald Trump of raping her at the Plaza Hotel in New York in November 1993, according to a report released by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee.
The report, which examines Trump’s alleged connections to Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual exploitation network, provides a detailed account of Keul’s allegations for the first time.
It also claims that Trump, Epstein and others used the Donald J. Trump American Dream Pageant, which attracted young women aged between 16 and 22, as a means of identifying vulnerable women and girls for potential exploitation.
Trump has not been criminally charged in connection with Keul’s allegations.
White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis rejected the claims in a statement to PEOPLE, dismissing the report as a politically motivated attack.
“None of these allegations are true,” Bis said.
She described the report as a desperate attempt by Democrats to distract Americans from the Republicans’ growing momentum and what she called Trump’s historic achievements.
Bis also maintained that Trump had expelled Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club because of his behaviour and insisted that the president had been completely exonerated of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
What Beatrice Keul alleges happened at the Plaza Hotel
According to the report, Keul was 24 years old and working as a model and financial services professional when Jill Harth invited her to take part in the Donald J. Trump American Dream Pageant in November 1993.
The competition was held in Atlantic City and New York.
During a lunch attended by members of the press at the Plaza Hotel, which Trump owned at the time, he allegedly approached Keul and promised to help her obtain a visa and secure admission to New York University (NYU).
Keul subsequently described the encounter in an interview with committee staff, according to the report.
Shortly afterwards, Epstein allegedly approached her with similar offers, including an invitation to a party at Mar-a-Lago.
Later that day, a Trump representative allegedly invited Keul upstairs to meet him at the hotel. She believed the meeting might provide opportunities to advance her career and pursue her education.
According to her account, Trump grabbed her from behind after she entered his suite and raped her, tearing her dress and leaving her bleeding and bruised.
Keul described the alleged assault as violent.
Afterwards, Trump allegedly repeated his promises to help her obtain a visa and gain admission to NYU, while urging her not to disclose what had happened.
“The show must go on,” he allegedly told her.
Keul says she returned to Switzerland in fear
According to the report, Keul completed her participation in the beauty pageant despite feeling frightened and confused by the alleged incident.
She subsequently returned to Switzerland and, several weeks later, declined an invitation to participate in another Trump-organised competition in Hawaii.
Several months after the alleged assault, Trump reportedly telephoned Keul in Switzerland and again offered to help her obtain a visa and enrol at NYU.
She refused.
The Democratic report also refers to other allegations that its authors believe lend support to Keul’s account.
Among them is a sexual assault lawsuit filed against Trump by Jill Harth in 1997.
The report draws parallels between Trump’s alleged promises to Keul and testimony from women who told the committee that Epstein used offers of education and professional opportunities to approach and control his victims.
Previous sexual misconduct allegations against Trump
The White House’s denial comes against the background of earlier sexual misconduct allegations against Trump, including those made by writer E. Jean Carroll.
Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a changing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York during the 1990s.
She first publicly disclosed her allegations in 2019 in her book What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal.
According to Carroll, Trump pushed her against a wall, restrained her and sexually assaulted her.
Trump denied her allegations, saying in an interview that Carroll was “not my type” and claiming that he had never met her, despite photographs showing them together.
Carroll filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump in 2019, followed by a separate lawsuit in 2022 alleging sexual abuse and defamation under New York’s Adult Survivors Act.
In May 2023, a jury in a civil trial found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll, although it did not find him liable for rape under the specific legal definition considered by the jury.
The damages awarded in that case totalled approximately $5.6 million.
Trump continued to challenge the verdict, but the US Supreme Court declined to review the case in August.
Following that decision, Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, welcomed the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the appeal, saying the jury’s unanimous finding that Trump had sexually abused and subsequently defamed Carroll was now final and could no longer be challenged in court.
Trump is also continuing to contest a separate jury verdict ordering him to pay Carroll approximately $83 million in damages for defamation.
The allegations made by Keul remain unproven in court, and the White House continues to deny them.
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