Donald J. Trump was emphatic in the second presidential debate: Yes, he had boasted about kissing women without permission and grabbing their genitals. But he had never actually done those things, he said.
No, he declared under questioning on Sunday evening, I have not.
At that moment, sitting at home in Manhattan, Jessica Leeds, 74, felt he was lying to her face. I wanted to punch the screen, she said in an interview in her apartment.
More than three decades ago, when she was a traveling businesswoman at a paper company, Ms. Leeds said, she sat beside Mr. Trump in the first-class cabin of a flight to New York. They had never met before.
About 45 minutes after takeoff, she recalled, Mr. Trump lifted the armrest and began to touch her.
According to Ms. Leeds, Mr. Trump grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt....
Ms. Leeds has told the story to at least four people close to her, who also spoke with The New York Times.
Mr. Trumps claim that his crude words had never turned into actions was similarly infuriating to a woman watching on Sunday night in Ohio: Rachel Crooks.
Ms. Crooks was a 22-year-old receptionist at Bayrock Group, a real estate investment and development company in Trump Tower in Manhattan, when she encountered Mr. Trump outside an elevator in the building one morning in 2005.
Aware that her company did business with Mr. Trump, she turned and introduced herself. They shook hands, but Mr. Trump would not let go, she said. Instead, he began kissing her cheeks. Then, she said, he kissed me directly on the mouth.
It didnt feel like an accident, she said. It felt like a violation.
It was so inappropriate, Ms. Crooks recalled in an interview. I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that.
Shaken, Ms. Crooks returned to her desk and immediately called her sister, Brianne Webb, in the small town in Ohio where they grew up, and told her what had happened.
She was very worked up about it, said Ms. Webb, who recalled pressing her sister for details. Being from a town of 1,600 people, being naïve, I was like Are you sure he didnt just miss trying to kiss you on the cheek? She said, No, he kissed me on the mouth. I was like, That is not normal....
In a phone interview on Tuesday night, a highly agitated Mr. Trump denied every one of the womens claims.
None of this ever took place, said Mr. Trump, who began shouting at The Times reporter who was questioning him. He said that The Times was making up the allegations to hurt him and that he would sue the news organization if it reported them.
You are a disgusting human being, he told the reporter as she questioned him about the womens claims.
Asked whether he had ever done any of the kissing or groping that he had described on the recording, Mr. Trump was once again insistent: I dont do it. I dont do it. It was locker room talk....
Ms. Crooks and Ms. Leeds never reported their accounts to the authorities, but they both shared what happened to them with friends and family. Ms. Crooks did so immediately afterward; Ms. Leeds described the events to those close to her more recently, as Mr. Trump became more visible politically and ran for president....
Days later, Ms. Crooks said, Mr. Trump, who had recently married Melania, came into the Bayrock office and requested her phone number. When she asked why he needed it, Mr. Trump told her he intended to pass it along to his modeling agency. Ms. Crooks was skeptical, but relented because of Mr. Trumps influence over her company. She never heard from the modeling agency.
