President Donald Trump is facing a new and serious rape allegation after a former beauty pageant contestant told Democratic investigators that Trump forcibly raped her in 1993 during an encounter at his Atlantic City hotel, according to a new report released Monday by House Judiciary Committee Democrats.
Beatrice Keul, a Swiss former pageant contestant, previously accused Trump of making unwanted sexual advances toward her during the encounter. But in interviews with Democratic committee staff this year, she revealed that the encounter went much further, describing what she called a “brutal” rape in a hotel room at Trump’s Plaza Hotel in Atlantic City, HuffPost reports.
According to the report, Keul said she had spent time with Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who was once among Trump’s close associates, before the alleged assault.
The report marks a significant escalation in the allegations Keul has made publicly and offers a glimpse of how House Democrats could investigate Trump’s connections to Epstein if they regain control of the House of Representatives in January.
The White House flatly denied the allegations, calling the report a politically motivated attack.
“This ‘report’ is nothing more than a desperate attempt by crazed Democrats to distract Americans from the surging Republican momentum driven by President Trump’s historic achievements,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said in an email. She also claimed Trump had been fully exonerated of anything related to Epstein.
The report, prepared under the leadership of Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, argues that evidence warrants further scrutiny of Trump’s past relationship with Epstein and the Justice Department’s handling of records related to the sex-trafficking investigation.
“A growing body of evidence demonstrates that Donald Trump was an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women during the mid-to-late 1990s,” the report states.
That is a conclusion advanced by the Democratic staff report, not a judicial finding that Trump participated in Epstein’s crimes.
Democrats also accuse the Trump administration of unlawfully withholding Epstein-related Justice Department records that Congress ordered released. The report argues that missing documents and questions surrounding the department’s handling of the files warrant further investigation.
The report specifically raises questions about Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer, who interviewed Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell last year before she was transferred to a minimum-security prison facility.
Democrats allege Blanche may have obstructed justice in an effort to protect Trump. The report does not establish that Blanche committed a crime, and the allegations remain unproven.
“The women who survived Epstein deserve to be heard, Congress must have the complete files required by law, and an independent special counsel must investigate Epstein’s co-conspirators and DOJ’s cover-up,” Raskin said in a statement.
Keul first publicly described an alleged unwanted sexual encounter with Trump in an October 2024 interview with the *Daily Mail*. At that time, she said Trump had jumped on her and groped her, but that she eventually persuaded him to stop.
“I tried everything I could. Finally, I said, ‘Let’s talk first’ or something like that, then he slowed down,” she told the newspaper.
Keul was 24 at the time of the alleged incident.
In her more recent interviews with Democratic investigators, she reportedly said she met Trump at a beauty pageant event at his hotel in November 1993. According to the report, Trump told her he could help arrange a visa and admission to New York University.
She later met Epstein, who allegedly introduced himself as “Don’s best friend.”
The report says Keul was subsequently invited to a room upstairs, where she alleged Trump assaulted her.
“Trump reportedly grabbed Keul from behind and forcibly raped her; in the process, tearing her dress and causing bleeding and bruising on multiple parts of her body,” the report states, summarizing her account.
Keul reportedly described the assault as “brutal.” She also told investigators that afterward, Trump repeated his promises to help with her visa and university admission and pressured her to remain silent, allegedly telling her, “[T]he show must go on.”
The Democratic staff report does not include transcripts of the interviews. It also does not explain why Keul’s account became more serious than the allegations she described publicly in 2024.
The new allegation has not been established in court, and Trump denies wrongdoing.
The report also compares Keul’s account with allegations made by other women, including writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in the mid-1990s.
In May 2023, a civil jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her. The judge subsequently explained that the jury’s finding was consistent with the ordinary meaning of rape, even though the jury did not find Trump liable for rape under the narrower definition in the jury instructions.
That civil verdict is a separate legal matter from Keul’s allegation.
The report argues that the similarities between the accounts deserve further scrutiny as Congress examines Trump’s relationship with Epstein and the government’s handling of records connected to the late financier.
The political stakes are significant. If Democrats win control of the House in the November elections, the Judiciary Committee could use its investigative authority to seek testimony, subpoena records and examine documents that are not publicly available.
Monday’s report identifies Epstein-related records that Democrats say are known to exist but do not appear in the Justice Department’s public database. That could provide a roadmap for future congressional inquiries.
For now, the allegations against Trump remain disputed, and the report itself does not establish criminal guilt. But Democrats are signaling that Epstein’s network, the handling of the investigative files and Trump’s past conduct could become major subjects of congressional scrutiny.
Trump has previously denied wrongdoing related to Epstein. Trump allies says the president cut ties with Epstein because he was a “creep” and insists the new report is a partisan effort to damage him.
The broader questions about what the government knows, what records remain undisclosed and whether additional evidence exists are likely to remain at the center of the political fight.
