Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States (1993–2001), has been personally accused publicly by several women of sexual misconduct.
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Juanita Broaddrick accused Clinton of rape; Kathleen Willey accused Clinton of groping her without consent; and Paula Jones accused Clinton of exposing himself and sexually harassing her. Charges of sexual misconduct somewhat gained heightened publicity during Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. In addition to these accusers, several other women have accused Clinton of consensual adultery.
Of all the allegations made against him regarding his sexual history, Clinton has only admitted extramarital relationships with Monica Lewinsky and Gennifer Flowers. Through his representatives, he has responded to the allegations by attempting to discredit the credibility of the accusers, noting that (in the case of Broaddrick and Willey) they previously testified, under oath, that Clinton never made unwanted advances. Several witnesses close to Willey and Jones state that the two women described their encounter with Clinton as consensual.
The three accusers, Willey, Broaddrick and Jones reemerged in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign as critics of Hillary Clinton (accusing her of enabling her husband's alleged sexual assault) and as supporters of Republican nominee Donald Trump, who himself was also facing sexual assault allegations during the campaign. They appeared as debate guests at the second 2016 presidential debate, alongside Kathy Shelton, and referenced Bill Clinton in pre-debate statements.
Juanita Broaddrick
In a 1999 episode of Dateline NBC, former Bill Clinton volunteer Juanita Broaddrick alleged that, in the late 1970s, Clinton raped her in her hotel room. According to Broaddrick, she agreed to meet with Clinton for coffee in the lobby of her hotel, but Clinton asked if they could go to her room to avoid a crowd of reporters; she agreed. Once Clinton had isolated her in her hotel room, Broaddrick states that he raped her. Broaddrick stated Clinton injured her lip by biting it during the assault. In 1999, Clinton denied Broaddrick's allegations through his lawyer.
Supporters of Clinton have questioned her account by noting that Broaddrick continued to support Clinton, and appear at public events on his behalf, weeks after the alleged rape, along with the fact that Broaddrick stated that she couldn't remember the exact date the alleged incident occurred. In addition, Broaddrick had once signed a deposition, under oath, stating that no sexual contact had occurred with Bill Clinton; although she subsequently stated that she had made this claim because "I didn't want to be forced to testify about the most horrific event of my life." In 1999, Slate magazine published an inconclusive piece on whether Broaddrick was telling the truth. Christopher Hitchens in No One Left to Lie To makes the point that Juanita Broaddrick hardly fits the stereotype of a pushy, deluded accuser who went public to sell a book or get attention. In 1978, Broaddrick, a Democrat supporter, only revealed the alleged assault to five intimates, one of whom was her husband-to-be, and took their advice not to cause trouble for herself by going public. Later, in the 1990s, she still didn't come forward but was "outed" by another friend who was a Republican. She was then subpoenaed but denied under oath that she had made the accusation, in order, it is said, to protect her privacy, her husband and her horse-farm business.
Broaddrick's allegations resurfaced in the 2016 presidential campaign. In various media interviews, Broaddrick stated that Clinton raped her and that Hillary Clinton knew about it, and tried to threaten Broaddrick into remaining silent. She said that she started giving some interviews in 2015 because Hillary Clinton's statement that victims of sexual assault should be believed angered her.
Paula Jones
According to Paula Jones' account, on May 8, 1991, she was escorted to Clinton's hotel room in Little Rock, Arkansas where he propositioned and exposed himself to her. She claimed she kept quiet about the incident until 1994, when a David Brock story in the American Spectator magazine printed an account. In any case, in 1994, Jones filed a federal lawsuit against Clinton, alleging sexual harassment. In the discovery stage of the suit, Jones's lawyers had the opportunity to question Clinton under oath about his sexual history; in the course of this testimony, Clinton denied having had a sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky, a denial that (once his affair with Lewinsky was exposed) would lead to his impeachment for perjury and obstruction of justice.
Several witnesses disputed Jones's account, including her sister and brother-in-law. These witnesses contended that she had described her encounter with Clinton as "happy" and "gentle." In addition, Jones had claimed to friends that Clinton had a particular deformity on his penis, a claim that was revealed to be false by investigators.
In April 1998, the case was dismissed by Republican Judge Susan Webber Wright as lacking legal merit. But Jones appealed Webber Wright's ruling, and her suit gained traction following Clinton's admission to having an affair with Monica Lewinsky in August 1998. (This admission indicated that Clinton may have lied under oath when he testified, in the Jones case, that he had never had a sexual relationship with Lewinsky.)
On appeal, in the midst of his trial for impeachment based on his testimony in the Jones case, Clinton was faced with the prospect of having to go under oath again and testify more about his sexual history. Instead, Clinton agreed to an out-of-court settlement, paying Jones and her lawyers $850,000 to drop the suit; the vast majority of this money was used to pay Jones's legal fees. Clinton's lawyer said that the President made the settlement only so he could end the lawsuit for good and move on with his life.
Kathleen Willey
In 1998, Kathleen Willey alleged Clinton groped her without consent in the White House Oval Office in 1993. Kenneth Starr granted her immunity for her testimony in his separate inquiry.
Linda Tripp, the Clinton Administration staffer who secretly taped her phone conversations with Monica Lewinsky in order to expose the latter's affair with the President, testified under oath that Willey's sexual contact with President Clinton in 1993 was consensual, that Willey had been flirting with the President, and that Willey was happy and excited following her 1993 encounter with Clinton. Six other friends of Willey confirmed Tripp's account, that Willey had sought a sexual relationship with the President. Ken Starr, who had deposed Willey in the course of investigating the sexual history of President Clinton, determined that she had lied under oath repeatedly to his investigators. Starr and his team therefore concluded that there was insufficient evidence to pursue her allegations further. In 2007 Willey published a book about her experiences with the Clintons.
Joy Behar controversy
Two decades after most of the events in question, on the U.S. television program The View co-host Joy Behar referred to Bill Clinton's accusers as "tramps." Behar apologized for the sexual slur shortly afterwards.
Related books
Several books have been published related to these incidents. These are: