More accusers rip Robbins
Disgraced pol to run for Congress
Motivational magnate Tony Robbins is facing fresh allegations he sexually harassed women — with two former staffers claiming he urged female followers to twist their nipples and say, “Calling Tokyo.”
The new claims surfaced Wednesday in a BuzzFeed News report that said the self-help guru now has 10 women accusing him of sexual misconduct.
One new accuser reportedly said Robbins, 59, placed his hand on her knee during a job interview in the late 1990s.
“I felt uncomfortable,” the unidentified woman told BuzzFeed. “It was not professional.”
The woman said she shoved Robbins’ hand away and ultimately worked as an executive assistant for the “Unlimited Power” author.
She said Robbins (photo) never touched her inappropriately again, but she eventually decided to quit after receiving multiple calls from other women saying Robbins had groped them, BuzzFeed reported.
“Rarely was there a day when our team didn’t get calls from women saying that Robbins had touched them inappropriately,” the woman said. “After events across the world, the phone calls would pour in.”
Another former staffer identified only as Lou reportedly told BuzzFeed she was shown a training video in which Robbins told a woman to twist her own nipples and say “Calling Tokyo” as a way of “breaking her pattern.”
Robbins did this at “numerous events,” Lou told the news site.
Gary King, one of Robbins’ former bodyguards, backed up the claim by saying he also witnessed Robbins telling women to tweak their nipples and say “Calling Tokyo,” BuzzFeed reported.
Robbins and his lawyers denied the new allegations to BuzzFeed and said he didn’t use the alleged “Calling Tokyo” technique.
“BuzzFeed is continuing their premeditated attack on Tony Robbins and his life’s work. Their latest article rehashes many of the false accusations included in prior BuzzFeed articles, which Mr. Robbins categorically and robustly denies,” Robbins spokeswoman Jennifer Connelly said in a statement sent to the Daily News.
“We are confident that people will consider this for themselves with a discerning eye,” she said.
“Mr. Robbins believes that life happens for us, not to us and that there is a gift in all situations, even if we might not understand it in the moment. So, in the midst of this divisiveness, he’s decided to find the gift and turn this into an opportunity to unite and serve people,” she said, adding that Robbins would be donating to the charities Feeding America and Operation Underground as part of his response campaign.
The new accusations reported Wednesday emerged after BuzzFeed published a series of reports that started with a May 17 exposé claiming Robbins exposed himself to staffers and berated victims of rape and domestic violence at his speaking events. Eric Stevenson, the former Bronx assemblyman who was convicted five years ago on bribery charges, is running for Congress.
The unlikely contender announced his run for retiring Rep. Jose Serrano’s seat Wednesday with a press release touting his “good work.”
“The work spoke for itself,” he told the Daily News. “It will continue to speak for itself.”
Stevenson (photo) compared his time in prison to the plight of the Central Park Five, the five youths wrongfully convicted of rape and then famously exonerated.
“Look at the Central Park Five,” he said. “Whatever they did to me isn’t going to change what I believe.”
Stevenson was found guilty of taking $20,000 in bribes in exchange for pushing legislation to benefit an owner of adult day care centers. He was sentenced to three years in prison, but still maintains his innocence.
He enters a field of eight other Democrats.