Trump kisses former aide Alva Johnson in video ‘proving he violated her without consent’

White House had denied incident took place when staffer first came forward

A former campaign aide for Donald Trump has said a video proves her claim the president kissed her without her consent in 2016.

Alva Johnson, who spent months working on Mr Trump’s campaign, first came forward in February when she announced she was suing the president over the alleged incident.

She told The Washington Post at the time that Mr Trump was with her at a rally in Florida in August 2016 when he went in to kiss her without warning. She said she managed to turn her head in time so his lips only hit the side of her mouth.

“I immediately felt violated because I wasn’t expecting it or wanting it,” she told the newspaper.

Mr Trump’s office immediately denied the event had ever occurred and White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders described the allegations as “absurd” and “directly contradicted by multiple highly credible eyewitness accounts”.

Now, lawyers for Mr Trump have released a short 15-second video which they claim shows Ms Johnson’s accusations are baseless.

In the short clip Mr Trump can be seen amid dozens of campaign staff leaning in and kissing the side of Ms Johnson’s face while he also shakes her hand.

After he pulls back Ms Johnson can be heard saying she had worked “eight months for you… we’re going to get you into the White House”. Mr Trump replies: “Thank you.”

However, despite Ms Johnson’s lawyers claiming the video proves her allegation, lawyers for Mr Trump said it showed the opposite.

In a court filing, an attorney for Mr Trump said the claims were “unmeritorious and frivolous” and the video only showed an “innocent interaction that is mutual – and not forcible”.

Hassan Zavareei, a lawyer for Ms Johnson, admitted in a statement not everyone would have felt “violated” by the encounter but said his client felt “confused and uncomfortable” by Mr Trump’s kiss.

Her lawsuit, filed in February, states: “To Defendant Trump, however, Ms. Johnson was nothing more than a sexual object he felt entitled to dominate and humiliate.

“Like he has done with so many other women, Defendant Trump violated norms of decency and privacy by kissing Ms. Johnson on the lips without her consent.”

Ms Johnson said she only realised the gravity of what had happened weeks after the incident when the now infamous Access Hollywood tape of Trump bragging about groping women was released.

“I felt sick to my stomach,” Ms Johnson said. “That was what he did to me.” Shortly afterwards she quit his campaign, just three weeks before the election.

Ms Johnson has become the latest of more than a dozen women to accuse Mr Trump of some kind of sexual misconduct.

Most recently, columnist E Jean Carroll alleged the president sexually assaulted her before trying to rape her in a New York department store changing room more than 25 years ago.

Mr Trump denied the claim, saying he had never even met Ms Carroll, despite photographs showing the pair together at a party.