Trump accused of inappropriate touching by two women

Republican US presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Panama City, Florida, US, October 11, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - Two women accused Donald Trump of inappropriate touching in a story posted on the New York Times website on Wednesday, accusations his spokesman called "fiction" but which may further roil the Republican presidential nominee's campaign with only four weeks to go until the Nov. 8 election.

One of the women, Jessica Leeds, appeared on camera to recount how Trump grabbed her breast and tried to put his hand up her skirt in the first class cabin on a flight to New York in the early 1980s. The second woman, Rachel Crooks, described how Trump "kissed me directly on the mouth" in 2005 outside the elevator in Trump Tower in Manhattan, where she was a receptionist at a real estate firm.

Reuters could not independently verify the incidents described in the New York Times story. The New York Times, Leeds and Crooks did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.

"This entire article is fiction, and for the New York Times to launch a completely false, coordinated character assassination against Mr. Trump on a topic like this is dangerous," Trump campaign senior communications adviser Jason Miller said in a statement.

The report comes on the heels of a 2005 video that surfaced on Friday that showed Trump bragging about groping women, kissing them without permission, and trying to seduce a married woman.