A well-known women�s rights lawyer sought to arrange compensation from
donors and tabloid media outlets for women who made or considered
making sexual misconduct allegations against Donald Trump during the
final months of the 2016 presidential race, according to documents and
interviews.

California lawyer Lisa Bloom�s efforts included offering to sell
alleged victims� stories to TV outlets in return for a commission for
herself, arranging a donor to pay off one Trump accuser�s mortgage and
attempting to secure a six-figure payment for another woman who
ultimately declined to come forward after being offered as much as
$750,000, the clients told The Hill.

The women�s accounts were chronicled in contemporaneous contractual
documents, emails and text messages reviewed by The Hill, including an
exchange of texts between one woman and Bloom that suggested political
action committees supporting Hillary Clinton were contacted during the
effort.

Bloom, who has assisted dozens of women in prominent harassment cases
and also defended film executive Harvey Weinstein earlier this year,
represented four women considering making accusations against Trump
last year. Two went public, and two declined.
In a statement to The Hill, Bloom acknowledged she engaged in
discussions to secure donations for women who made or considered making
accusations against Trump before last year�s election.

�Donors reached out to my firm directly to help some of the women I
represented,� said Bloom, whose clients have also included accusers of
Bill Cosby and Bill O�Reilly.

Bloom said her goal in securing money was not to pressure the women to
come forward, but rather to help them relocate or arrange security if
they felt unsafe during the waning days of a vitriolic election. She
declined to identify any of the donors.

And while she noted she represented sexual harassment victims for free
or at reduced rates, she also acknowledged a standard part of her
contracts required women to pay her commissions as high as 33 percent
if she sold their stories to media outlets.

�Our standard pro bono agreement for legal services provides that if a
media entity offers to compensate a client for sharing his or her story
we receive a percentage of those fees. This rarely happens. But, on
occasion, a case generates media interest and sometimes (not always) a
client may receive an appearance fee,� she said.

�As a private law firm we have significant payroll, rent, taxes,
insurance and other expenses every week, so an arrangement where we
might receive some compensation to defray our costs seems reasonable to
us and is agreed to by our clients,� Bloom added.

Bloom told The Hill she had no contact with Clinton or her campaign,
but declined to address any contacts with super PACs that supported the
Democratic presidential nominee.

Josh Schwerin, the communications director for Priorities USA Action,
the largest pro-Clinton super PAC, told The Hill that the group had no
relationship with Bloom and had no discussions with her about
supporting Trump accusers.

One Bloom client who received financial help from Bloom was New York
City makeup artist Jill Harth.

The former beauty contestant manager filed a sexual harassment lawsuit
against Trump in 1997 and then withdrew it under pressure. The news
media discovered the litigation during the election, and Harth�s name
became public in the summer of 2016. She asked Bloom to represent her
in the fall after hearing Trump describe her allegations against him as
false, and became a vocal critic of Trump.

�I consider myself lucky to have had Lisa Bloom by my side after my old
lawsuit resurfaced. She advised me with great competence and
compassion,� Harth told The Hill.

Harth said she did not originally ask Bloom for money, even though her
cosmetics business suffered from the notoriety of the campaign stories
about her.

But later, Bloom arranged a small payment from the licensing of some
photos to the news media, and then set up a GoFundMe.com account to
raise money for Harth in October 2016. �Jill put herself out there,
facing off with Donald Trump. Let�s show her some love,� the online
fundraising appeal set up by Bloom�s husband declared.

The effort raised a little over $2,300.

Bloom then arranged for a donor to make a larger contribution to help
Harth pay off the mortgage on her Queens apartment in New York City.
The amount was under $30,000, according to a source directly familiar
with Harth�s situation. Public records show Harth�s mortgage was
recorded as extinguished on Dec. 19, 2016.

Harth said the payments did not affect the merits of her allegations.
She alleges that during a January 1993 meeting at Trump�s Mar-a-Lago
estate, the future president pushed her up against a wall and groped
her, trying to get his hands up her dress.

�Nothing that you�ve said to me about my mortgage or the Go Fund Me
that was created to help me out financially affects the facts or the
veracity of my 1997 federal complaint against Donald J. Trump for
sexual harassment and assault,� she told The Hill.

�Having to retell my experiences of Donald Trump's harassment is the
hardest thing I've ever had to do.�

Trump has steadfastly denied assaulting or harassing women, even after
a videotape surfaced in September 2016 in which he can be heard
boasting that famous men like him can grab women by the genitalia
without consequence. Trump has dismissed the tape as "locker room
talk."

Harth is currently writing a memoir about her whole experience, but
without Bloom�s help.

Bloom acknowledged arranging financial help for Harth, who she said had
lost income because of the publicity surrounding her allegations.

�She endured a tidal wave of hate for it. It was very painful for her.
And as a New York City makeup artist, Jill lost jobs after she came out
publicly against Donald Trump. I believed that people wanted to donate
to help her, so we set up the GoFundMe account,� she told The Hill.

The Hill does not identify the names of victims of sexual assault or
harassment unless they go public on their own, like Harth.

But one woman who did not go public with allegations agreed to share
her documents and talk to The Hill about her interactions with Bloom if
The Hill honored its commitment to maintain her anonymity.

Both that woman and Harth, who were friends, stressed that Bloom never
asked them to make any statements or allegations except what they
believed to be true.

Their texts and emails indicate Bloom held a strong dislike of Trump
though. Bloom is the daughter of Gloria Allred, another prominent
attorney who is representing a number of women who have made
accusations of sexual misconduct against Trump.

In an email to the unnamed woman, Bloom said that her story was
�further evidence of what a sick predator this man is,� referring to
Trump.

Documents also show Bloom�s efforts to get alleged victims of sexual
assault or harassment to come out against Trump intensified as Election
Day 2016 approached.

When Harth, for instance, informed Bloom she had just made a Facebook
post urging other women to come forward about Trump in October 2016,
the lawyer texted back: �Wow Jill that would be amazing. 27 days until
the election.�

And when a potential client abruptly backed out of a pre-election news
conference in which she was supposed to allege she was sexually
assaulted at age 13, Bloom turned her attention to another woman.

That woman, Harth�s friend, went back and forth for weeks with Bloom in
2016 about going public with an allegation of an unsolicited advance by
Trump on the 1990s beauty contest circuit.

�Give us a clear sense of what you need and we will see if it we can
get it,� Bloom texted the woman a week before Election Day.

�I�m scared Lisa. I can�t relocate. I don�t like taking other people�s
money,� the woman wrote to Bloom.

�Ok let�s not do this then,� Bloom responded. �We are just about out of
time anyway.�

The woman then texted back demanding to know why there was a deadline.
�What does time have to do with this? Time to bury Trump??? You want my
story to bury trump for what? Personal gain? See that 's why I have
trust issues!!�

The woman told The Hill in an interview that Bloom initially approached
her in early October through Harth. She said she considered coming
forward with her account of an unsolicited advance by Trump solely to
support her friend Harth, and not because she had any consternation
with Trump, who ended the advance when she asked him to stop, she said.

The woman said Bloom initially offered a $10,000 donation to the
woman�s favorite church, an account backed up by text messages the two
exchanged.

�Please keep the donation offer confidential except to your pastor,�
Bloom wrote the woman on Oct. 14, 2016.

When Bloom found out the woman was still a supporter of Trump and
associated with lawyers, friends and associates of the future
president, she texted a request that jarred the woman.

�When you have a chance I suggest you delete the August 2015 Facebook
post about supporting Trump,� Bloom texted. �Otherwise the reporter
will ask you how you could support him after what he did to you. Your
call but it will make your life easier.�