Famed real estate mogul/reality TV star and current republican candidate for president Donald Trump cannot stay out of hot water, it seems. All of his recent publicity has brought up an allegation from the later '90's that he sexually assaulted his former wife Ivana Trump.

On Monday, The Daily Beast published an article revisiting the vivid incident. According to the piece, the attack allegedly occurred after Trump's scalp reduction surgery went sour. In author Hary Hurt III's book Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump (1993), he detailed the incident. Ivana emotionally recalled how her former husband became brutally angry, blaming her for poor judgement on the surgeon. Trump then began physically tearing out his wife's hair, and then raped her. Ivana admitted to a few close friends that she considered the incident "rape" and recounted it in a deposition for her divorce from Trump, which is how Hurt found it..

Hurt described the horrific scene, writing "Then he jams his penis inside her for the first time in more than sixteen months. Ivana is terrified... It is a violent assault." After "crying for the rest of the night," Ivana returned to her bedroom only to meet Donald who callously asked her "Did it hurt?" Later on Ivana backtracked on this claim, explaining she felt 'violated' instead of 'raped'. Trump and his lawyers then forced Hurt to include a note in the book explaining Ivana's ultimate denial, further conflating the incident.

When Counsel for Trump Organization Michael Cohen commented on the incident to the Daily Beast recently, his response was less than accurate. Cohen explained his logic that "You cannot rape your spouse. And there's very clear case law." However, the marital rape exemption law to which he refers was struck down in 1984, five years before the alleged incident. Regardless, currently the law stands that rape can occur within a marriage.

Cohen then proceeded to threaten Daily Beast writers Tim Mak and Brandy Zadrozny with legal action, and even verbally threatened to ruin their careers, which they featured as quotes in the article. Mak and Zadrozny may have just made trending news and severely impacted Trump's campaign by merely unearthing a 20 year old rape allegation.

On Tuesday morning, Ivana Trump released a statement to CNN negating the claims. She explained that she and Donald are currently "the best of friends" and "have nothing but fondness" for each other. She then wished him the best of luck on his campaign, and voiced her support for his candidacy. This confusing statement coupled with her prior record of backtracking further muddles the story of the alleged rape.

As a candidate, Trump has been labeled a racist (thanks to his comments about Mexicans) and now an accused rapist. But he's still the leading Republican candidate for president.

Tags: donald trump ivana trump presidential election 2016