Former Trump campaign aide Alva Johnson thought she’d cash in after filing a lawsuit claiming Trump had “forcibly kissed her” prior to a Tampa, FL rally in August 2016.

The lawsuit, filed in February 2019, alleged that Trump had “kissed her without her consent.”

Johnson told The Washington Post that “Trump grabbed her hand and leaned in to kiss her on the lips as he exited an RV outside the rally in Tampa on Aug. 24, 2016. Johnson said she turned her head and the unwanted kiss landed on the side of her mouth.”

She said, “I immediately felt violated because I wasn’t expecting it or wanting it. I can still see his lips coming straight for my face.” She said that the incident had been causing her “anguish.”

“I’ve tried to let it go,” she said, beginning to cry. “You want to move on with your life. I don’t sleep. I wake up at 4 in the morning looking at the news. I feel guilty. The only thing I did was show up for work one day.”

She sounds remarkably like Christine Blasey-Ford.

Johnson’s therapist, Lisheyna Hurvitz, wrote on October 27, 2016 that “she is having nightmares because of what happened.”

Johnson’s lawsuit sought “unspecified damages for the emotional distress. She also alleges she was discriminated against for her race. Johnson, who is black, claims she was paid less than her white male counterparts.”

The Washington Examiner reported that the incident did not stop her from twice applying for jobs in the Trump administration or from attending an inaugural ball. She was not offered a position but said that had no effect on her decision to sue.

It is notable that Johnson has caused some legal troubles of her own. The Washington Post reported:

In September [2018], acting on the request from Johnson and her relatives, a Georgia judge sealed the court records stemming from the years-ago family dispute. According to the records, Johnson’s half sister and her father, on behalf of a younger half sister, briefly obtained a temporary restraining order against Johnson in 2006. They alleged she was calling the younger sibling’s school and falsely claiming that the teenager was using drugs. The older sibling wrote that she fired Johnson from her business for using “company property” to arrange extramarital affairs for herself online.

Balanced people generally don’t behave like that.

Upon hearing the allegation, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement that it was “absurd on its face. This never happened and is directly contradicted by multiple highly credible eye witness accounts.”

A district court judge dismissed Johnson’s lawsuit in June ruling that her complaint was “politically motivated” and granting her “30 days to file an amended version.”

In July, Trump’s lawyers released the video (below) which shows how innocuous their interaction was. In a roomful of campaign aides, Trump gives her a friendly kiss on the cheek thanking her for her help. Johnson is seen smiling back in what seemed (to me) to be a sincere manner. The contact between them lasted for three seconds. There was nothing sexual about it.

And today, Johnson has announced she is dropping her lawsuit. She told The Daily Beast, “I’m fighting against a person with unlimited resources, and repeatedly the judicial system has failed to find fault in his behavior. That’s a huge mountain to climb.”

Watch the video.

Alva Johnson, a former campaign aide of @realDonaldTrump, has filed a lawsuit claiming he forcibly kissed her.

Here's video of the interaction. https://t.co/4YEEiSGoi2 pic.twitter.com/6dZVoW8R0M

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) September 5, 2019