• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, October 17, 2016

Melania Trump is firing back at People magazine over an article it published last week, accusing her husband, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, of sexually assaulting a writer for the magazine.

Her beef isn't because of any supposed inaccuracies in the description of the assault. Rather, Mrs. Trump is disputing that she briefly encountered the writer in the street some months later.

In her first-person account for People published last Wednesday, writer Natasha Stoynoff alleged that during a visit to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in 2005, the real estate mogul and reality TV star pinned her against the wall and forcibly kissed her while his wife was out of the room, then later told her: “You know we’re going to have an affair, don’t you?”

Stoynoff wrote that she didn’t write about the assault at the time because she was afraid Trump would destroy her career.

Last week, Melania Trump’s lawyer, Charles Harder, delivered a letter to People editor-in-chief Jess Cagle and Stoynoff, claiming that parts of Stoynoff’s account are “false and completely fictionalized.” The letter demands that People retract these portions of the article and print a prominent apology.

He threatens a lawsuit against the magazine if it fails to do so.

The letter specifies three details that are allegedly false, all concerning a chance meeting between Melania Trump and Stoynoff that supposedly occurred some months later. Stoynoff claimed that she ran into Mrs. Trump carrying her newborn baby into Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, leading to an exchange in which the latter asked: “'Natasha, why don’t we see you anymore?” Stoynoff implies that she evaded the question out of a duty to conceal Donald Trump’s philandering behavior from his wife.

According to the letter, “The true facts are these: Mrs. Trump did not encounter Ms. Stoynoff on the street, nor have any conversation with her. The two are not friends and were never friends or even friendly. At the time in question, Mrs. Trump would not have even recognized Ms. Stoynoff if they had encountered one another on the street.”

People magazine said it is standing by Stoynoff’s account, including the supposed chance meeting in New York City.