Juanita
isn't the only one: Bill Clinton's long history of sexual violence
against women dates back some 30 years
(Editor's Note: The following story is an update
of previously-published information and contains some new material.)
By Daniel J. Harris
& Teresa Hampton
Capitol Hill Blue
Women have been charging Bill
Clinton with sexual assault since his days as a Rhodes Scholar at
Oxford 30 years ago.
A continuing investigation into the President's questionable sexual
history reveal incidents that go back as far as Clinton's college
days, with more than a dozen women claiming his sexual appetites
leave little room for the word ''no.''
Juanita Broaddrick, an Arkansas nursing home operator, told NBC's
Lisa Myers five weeks ago she was raped by Clinton. NBC shelved
the interview, saying they were confirming all parts of the story,
but finally aired it Wednesday night.
Broaddrick finally took her story to The Wall Street Journal,
which published her account of the brutal rape at the hands of the
future President, followed by The Washington Post and some
other publications.
But Capitol Hill Blue has confirmed that Broaddrick's story
is only one account of many attempted and actual sexual assaults
by Clinton that go back 30 years. Among the other incidents:
- Eileen Wellstone, 19-year-old English woman who said
Clinton sexually assaulted her after she met him at a pub near
the Oxford where the future President was a student in 1969. A
retired State Department employee, who asked not to be identified,
confirmed that he spoke with the family of the girl and filed
a report with his superiors. Clinton admitted having sex with
the girl, but claimed it was consensual. The victim's family declined
to pursue the case;
- In 1972, a 22-year-old woman told campus police at Yale
University that she was sexually assaulted by Clinton, a law student
at the college. No charges were filed, but retired campus policemen
contacted by Capitol Hill Blue confirmed the incident.
The woman, tracked down by Capitol Hill Blue last week,
confirmed the incident, but declined to discuss it further and
would not give permission to use her name;
- In 1974, a female student at the University of Arkansas
complained that then-law school instructor Bill Clinton tried
to prevent her from leaving his office during a conference. She
said he groped her and forced his hand inside her blouse. She
complained to her faculty advisor who confronted Clinton, but
Clinton claimed the student ''came on'' to him. The student left
the school shortly after the incident. Reached at her home in
Texas, the former student confirmed the incident, but declined
to go on the record with her account. Several former students
at the University have confirmed the incident in confidential
interviews and said there were other reports of Clinton attempting
to force himself on female students;
- Broaddrick, a volunteer in Clinton's gubernatorial campaign,
said he raped her in 1978. Mrs. Broaddrick suffered a bruised
and torn lip, which she said she suffered when Clinton bit her
during the rape;
- From 1978-1980, during Clinton's first term as governor
of Arkansas, state troopers assigned to protect the governor were
aware of at least seven complaints from women who said Clinton
forced, or attempted to force, himself on them sexually. One retired
state trooper said in an interview that the common joke among
those assigned to protect Clinton was "who's next?".
One former state trooper said other troopers would often escort
women to the governor's hotel room after political events, often
more than one an evening;
- Carolyn Moffet, a legal secretary in Little Rock in 1979,
said she met then-governor Clinton at a political fundraiser and
shortly thereafter received an invitation to meet the governor
in his hotel room. "I was escorted there by a state trooper.
When I went in, he was sitting on a couch, wearing only an undershirt.
He pointed at his penis and told me to suck it. I told him I didn't
even do that for my boyfriend and he got mad, grabbed my head
and shoved it into his lap. I pulled away from him and ran out
of the room."
- Elizabeth Ward, the Miss Arkansas who won the Miss America
crown in 1982, told friends she was forced by Clinton to have
sex with him shortly after she won her state crown. Last year,
Ward, who is now married with the last name of Gracen (from her
first marriage), told an interviewer she did have sex with Clinton
but said it was consensual. Close friends of Ward, however, say
she still maintains privately that Clinton forced himself on her.
- Paula Corbin, an Arkansas state worker, filed a sexual
harassment case against Clinton after an encounter in a Little
Rock hotel room where the then-governor exposed himself and demanded
oral sex. Clinton settled the case with Jones recently with an
$850,000 cash payment.
- Sandra Allen James, a former Washington, DC, political
fundraiser says Presidential candidate-to-be Clinton invited her
to his hotel room during a political trip to the nation's capital
in 1991, pinned her against the wall and stuck his hand up her
dress. She says she screamed loud enough for the Arkansas State
Trooper stationed outside the hotel suite to bang on the door
and ask if everything was all right, at which point Clinton released
her and she fled the room. When she reported the incident to her
boss, he advised her to keep her mouth shut if she wanted to keep
working. Miss James has since married and left Washington. Reached
at her home last week, the former Miss James said she later learned
that other women suffered the same fate at Clinton's hands when
he was in Washington during his Presidential run.
- Christy Zercher, a flight attendant on Clinton's leased
campaign plane in 1992, says Presidential candidate Clinton exposed
himself to her, grabbed her breasts and made explicit remarks
about oral sex. A video shot on board the plane by ABC News shows
an obviously inebriated Clinton with his hand between another
young flight attendant's legs. Zercher said later in an interview
that White House attorney Bruce Lindsey tried to pressure her
into not going public about the assault.
- Kathleen Willey, a White House volunteer, reported that
Clinton grabbed her, fondled her breast and pressed her hand against
his genitals during an Oval Office meeting in November, 1993.
Willey, who told her story in a 60 Minutes interview, became
a target of a White House-directed smear campaign after she went
public.
In an interview with Capitol Hill Blue, the retired State
Department employee said he believed the story Miss Wellstone, the
young English woman who said Clinton raped her in 1969.
''There was no doubt in my mind that this young woman had suffered
severe emotional trauma,'' he said. ''But we were under tremendous
pressure to avoid the embarrassment of having a Rhodes Scholar charged
with rape. I filed a report with my superiors and that was the last
I heard of it.''
Miss Wellstone, who is now married and lives near London, confirmed
the incident when contacted this week, but refused to discuss the
matter further. She said she would not go public with further details
of the attack. Afterwards, she changed her phone number and hired
a barrister who warned a reporter to stay away from his client.
In his book, Unlimited Access, former FBI agent Gary Aldrich
reported that Clinton left Oxford University for a "European
Tour" in 1969 and was told by University officials that he
was no longer welcome there. Aldrich said Clinton's academic record
at Oxford was lackluster. Clinton later accepted a scholarship for
Yale Law School and did not complete his studies at Oxford.
The State Department official who investigated the incident said
Clinton's interests appeared to be drinking, drugs and sex, not
studies.
"I came away from the incident with the clear impression that
this was a young man who was there to party, not study," he
said.
Oxford officials refused comment. The State Department also refused
to comment on the incident. A Freedom of Information request filed
by Capitol Hill Blue failed to turn up any records of the
incident.
Capitol Hill Blue also spoke with the former Miss James,
the Washington fundraiser who confirmed the encounter with Clinton
at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, but first said she would
not appear publicly because anyone who does so is destroyed by the
Clinton White House.
''My husband and children deserve better than that,'' she said
when first contacted two weeks ago. After reading the Broaddrick
story Friday, however, she called back and gave permission to use
her maiden name, but said she had no intention of pursuing the matter.
"I wasn't raped, but I was trapped in a hotel room for a brief
moment by a boorish man," she said. "I got away. He tried
calling me several times after that, but I didn't take his phone
calls. Then he stopped. I guess he moved on."
But Miss James also retreated from public view this week after
other news organizations contacted her.
The former Miss Moffet, the legal secretary who says Clinton tried
to force her into oral sex in 1979, has since married and left the
state. She says that when she told her boyfriend, who was a lawyer
and supporter of Clinton, about the incident, he told her to keep
her mouth shut.
"He said that people who crossed the governor usually regretted
it and that if I knew what was good for me I'd forget that it ever
happened," she said. "I haven't forgotten it. You don't
forget crude men like that."
Like two other women, the former Miss Moffet declined further interviews.
A neighbor said she had received threatening phone calls.
The other encounters were confirmed with more than 30 interviews
with retired Arkansas state employees, former state troopers and
former Yale and University of Arkansas students. Like others, they
refused to go public because of fears of retaliation from the Clinton
White House.
Likewise, the mainstream media has shied away from the Broaddrick
story. Initially, only The Drudge Report and other Internet
news sites have actively pursued it. Since initial publication of
this story, a few mainstream media outlets have expressed interest
in interviewing the women.
The White House did not return calls for comment. White House attorney
David Kendall has issued a public denial of the Broaddrick rape.
Copyright 1999. Capitol Web Publishing
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