Is Donald Trump deliberately trying to lose this race? In facing accusations of sexual assault, Trump is digging in and preparing to just sling more mud in the other direction at the media and Bill Clinton. As for defending himself against current accusations, the Trump campaign brought forward a witness, Anthony Gilberthorpe from Great Britain, who claims Trump accuser, Jessica Leeds is lying about her encounter with Trump on a flight in 1980 or 1981.

From the NY Post:

Gilberthorpe, 54, said he was sitting across the first class aisle from the couple and saw nothing inappropriate. Leeds was wearing a white pantsuit, he said, while Trump was wearing a suit and cuff-links, which he gave to his British flight companion. Indeed, Gilberthorpe claimed, Leeds was “trying too hard” in her attempt to win Trump over. “She wanted to marry him,” Gilberthorpe said of Leeds, who apparently made the confession when Trump excused himself and went to the bathroom. There was no kissing, but the “shrill” Leeds was “very much in your face” with the real estate developer.

And then the wheels fall off:

Gilberthorpe made headlines in 2014, when he went public with a claim that as a 17-year-old he procured boys (some who “could have been” underage”) for sex parties with high-ranking British politicians.

What?

Yes, it’s true. Here is the story from 2014:

Senior Tory cabinet ministers were supplied with underage boys for sex parties, it is sensationally claimed. Former Conservative activist Anthony Gilberthorpe said he told Margaret Thatcher 25 years ago about what he had witnessed and gave her names of those involved. His allegations that he saw top Tories having sex with boys comes after David Cameron launched a Government inquiry into claims of a cover-up. Anthony, 52, said: “I am prepared to speak to the inquiry. I believe I am a key witness.” Trawling seedy streets during a Tory conference, Gilberthorpe says he was asked to find underage rent boys for a private sex party at a top hotel. Today, more than three decades later, he claims he was acting on the orders of some of the most senior figures of Margaret Thatcher’s government. Anthony says he was a ­full-time ­political activist when he helped procure the “youngest and prettiest” boys for several cabinet ministers after being told to find “entertainment”. In a series of explosive claims about conferences at Blackpool and Brighton in the 1980s, he alleges boys as young as 15 indulged in alcohol and cocaine before they had sex with the powerful politicians.

This is who Trump sends forward as a character witness to defend him? A self-described pimp?

Has anybody checked on Kellyanne Conway? The campaign has gone full Bannon.

UPDATE: It is possible that Gilberthorpe is lying about his pimping past. So what if he is? Who the hell lies about that? And if he is lying about it, why on earth should anybody believe his take about what happened on that plane?

So the Trump campaign was faced with two choices: Gilberthorpe was either a pimp or a serial liar and fabulist. Either way, there’s no way in hell they should have put him forward as a character witness.