Rape accuser fights IRS audit
Juanita Broaddrick new victim of Clinton political targeting?
Posted: May 31, 2000
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Julie Foster
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
Juanita Broaddrick, who publicly accused Bill Clinton of raping her when he was Arkansas attorney general in 1978, is now protesting an Internal Revenue Service audit of her nursing home for tax returns that were filed covering 1998.
Broaddrick sued the White House and Justice Department in December for conducting a campaign to "smear and destroy her reputation" and is demanding the administration turn over any information collected about her.
Judicial Watch, the non-profit legal foundation representing Broaddrick in the suit, filed a complaint before the Inspector General of the Treasury Department over the recent audit notice.
The Arkansas nursing home executive, known as "Jane Doe Number 5" prior to her public accusation of Clinton in a Wall Street Journal interview and a nationally-televised NBC follow-up interview, is the latest in a long line of Clinton critics who have been audited under suspicious circumstances.
Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers, former White House Travel Office Director Billy Dale and Elizabeth Ward Gracen have all accused the president of assault or harassment and were audited following their complaints. Dozens of Clinton's political "enemies" also were audited during the 1990s, including the National Rifle Association, Citizens Against Government Waste, the Heritage Foundation, American Spectator, National Review and the Western Journalism Center, founded by WorldNetDaily Editor and CEO Joseph Farah.
"To those who doubt that there is a campaign of terror by the Clinton-Gore White House and its allies through IRS audits, FBI files, and other means, I suggest they consult with the 'law of averages' to determine whether these matters are simply coincidental," stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman.
Congress' Joint Tax Committee conducted an investigation into complaints of politically motivated audits. The three-year-long inquiry resulted in a report in which committee members cleared the agency of any wrongdoing. But White House officials were noted to have improperly requested confidential taxpayer information.
"Ms. Broaddrick is rightly upset about this audit," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, adding, "Broaddrick's audit is part of an effort by the Clinton-Gore White House to keep all the so-called Clinton women quiet during the campaigns of Mr. Gore and Mrs. Clinton."
Broaddrick's case received little media coverage after her televised interview, even though, according to a poll taken March 4-7, 1999, by Zogby International, most Americans believed her charges against the president.
In the poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percent, Zogby questioned 908 likely voters and found that those who had made a decision about the alleged assault believed Broaddrick's allegations by a margin of 2-1.
A Clinton campaign volunteer back in Arkansas, Broaddrick first met the gubernatorial candidate when he visited a nursing home she owned and operated. During the visit, Clinton invited her to come to his campaign headquarters whenever she was next in Little Rock.
Broaddrick was in Little Rock for a nursing home seminar the following week, and called the campaign headquarters to set up a meeting with Clinton. They arranged to meet for coffee in the cafe of the Camelot hotel where she was staying. Clinton pointed out that the environs were a bit noisy, according to Broaddrick, and recommended they adjourn to her room and have coffee there.
It was in the hotel room, after Broaddrick had rebuffed an advance by Clinton, that he held her down forcibly on a bed and bit her lips while engaging in sexual intercourse, she told the Wall Street Journal in a detailed account.
Though she was interviewed by NBC correspondent Lisa Myers before the Journal, the network held the story back for nearly a month. Anchor Tom Brokaw threatened to resign if the interview was aired.
The network interview was finally aired one week after the Journal published its story.
One month after the televised interview, NATO began its bombing of Serbians in Yugoslavia, which was followed weeks later by the school shooting in Columbine, Colo. Both events overshadowed the Arkansas woman's claims in the media. |
