Do You Believe Her Now?
On the same fall night in 2016 that the infamous Access Hollywood tape featuring Donald Trump bragging about sexual assault was made public by the Washington Post and dominated the news, an Alaska attorney, Moira Smith, wrote on Facebook about her own experiences as a victim of sexual misconduct in 1999.
At the age of 24, I found out Id be attending a dinner at my bosss house with Justice Clarence Thomas, she began her post, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court justice who was famously accused of sexually harassing Anita Hill, a woman who had worked for him at two federal agencies, including the EEOC, the federal sexual-harassment watchdog.
I was so incredibly excited to meet him, rough confirmation hearings notwithstanding, Smith continued. He was charming in many ways giant, booming laugh, charismatic, approachable. But to my complete shock, he groped me while I was setting the table, suggesting I should sit right next to him. When I feebly explained Id been assigned to the other table, he groped again
Are you sure? I said I was and proceeded to keep my distance. Smith had been silent for 17 years but, infuriated by the Grab em by the pussy utterings of a presidential candidate, could keep quiet no more.
Tipped to the post by a Maryland legal source who knew Smith, Marcia Coyle, a highly regarded and scrupulously nonideological Supreme Court reporter for The National Law Journal, wrote a detailed story about Smiths allegation of butt-squeezing, which included corroboration from Smiths roommates at the time of the dinner and from her former husband. Coyles story, which Thomas denied, was published October 27, 2016. If you missed it, thats because this news was immediately buried by a much bigger story the James Comey letter reopening the Hillary Clinton email probe.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/02/the-case-for-impeaching-clarence-thomas.html
While some on the left still want to throw navel-gazing pity parties for Monica Lewinsky, never forget that Anita Hill went through much, much worse... And never forget that unlike Lewinsky, Hill *NEVER* consented to sexual contact, she has never used her tragedy to personally enrich herself and she has never been given the commercial outlets and celebrity image rehab that Lewinsky has enjoyed these past two decades...
And I'll just leave this classic from the archives here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10025702437
MustLoveBeagles
(11,658 posts)MyOwnPeace
(16,940 posts)a "pebble in the shoe" for Joe Biden.