Congresswoman: Rape Allegation to Surface at Clinton Senate Trial
Carl Limbacher
December 22, 1998
Documentation Said to Sway Several Republicans to Impeach
Florida Rep. Tillie Fowler has seen top secret documents describing an alleged rape by Bill Clinton and says the accusation could play a role in the upcoming Senate trial of the impeached President. The material was made available to all members of the House and was said to be conclusive enough to persuade several wavering Republicans to vote for impeachment last Saturday.
In an impeachment eve appearance on CNBC, Fowler was asked about the documents, now sequestered in D.C's Gerald Ford Building, by Hardball host Chris Matthews:
MATTHEWS: You know the secrets in the Ford building, don't you?
FOWLER: I certainly do.
MATTHEWS: And can you give us any definition as to what additional information involving Jane Doe # 5 and other material like this that is leading people in your caucus to vote for impeachment in addition to the publicized material?
FOWLER: Well, to me what we already know is sufficient to move forward with impeachment and that is what I base my decision on. There is information there that I think goes more to the character of this man and to what he will do that has been deemed too salacious to release.
MATTHEWS: You mean the rape accusation.
FOWLER: Those and others...
MATTHEWS: Rape, that's what we're talking about, isn't it?
FOWLER: I won't speak to that. But there are things in there that are not good. I have made my decision, as I think most of us have, on the evidence as to whether it goes to perjury...
MATTHEWS: Help me out here. Why are members of the Republican caucus willing to read material that accuses the President of things like rape and make decisions based on that information but are not willing to disclose it after they learned it?
FOWLER: Well, I think there are some rules right now about that. It's not supposed to be disclosed because this is part of what's going to be used, I believe, in the trial.
U.S. News & World Report's Major Garrett, another Hardball guest, reported that 15 to 20 House Republicans accessed documentation on the rape allegation. After Fowler's bombshell revelation, Garrett confirmed that the material, "can be grist for the Senate trial and may in fact be grist for the Senate trial."
On March 28, ABC and NBC News reported that material released by Paula Jones attorneys included accounts from four witnesses who said that Juanita Broaddrick, of Van Buren, Ark., had told them that then-Arkansas Attorney General Bill Clinton had brutally raped her in 1978. One witness, a nurse identified as Norma Rogers, told NBC's Lisa Myers that she had treated Broaddrick after the assault, applying ice to Broaddrick's lips which were swollen to twice their normal size. According to Rogers, Broaddrick said that Clinton had sex with her "against her will."
In August, the New York Post identified Jane Doe # 5 as Juanita Broaddrick.
The appendix of Ken Starr's impeachment report to Congress reveals that on Jan. 2, 1998, Jane Doe # 5 filed an affidavit with lawyers for Paula Jones denying that Bill Clinton had made unwanted sexual advances towards her in the late 1970's. But, according to Starr's investigators, Jane Doe # 5 later testified that her sworn denial had been false.
Reportedly, Starr's FBI interviewers had found Jane Doe's latest account "inconclusive" and Starr decided to omit it from his final report to Congress.
But apparently the information, once shared with wavering Republicans, did have an impact as they considered their impeachment votes.
Saturday's New York Times reported that Republican moderate Mark Souder, who had planned to vote against impeachment, was "bothered" by the new information, worrying that "it might be true." Souder ended up voting for Impeachment Article 3, which charged Clinton with obstruction of justice. Asked whether the secret reports had changed his mind, Souder said, "They were part of it, but it was not the fundamental thing....It was based on looking at everything in totality, not at any particular bit of information," Newsday reported on Sunday.
CNBC's Matthews suggested that the secret information had moved more than a few wavering Republicans to vote for impeachment:
"I'm told today that one of the reasons Republicans are voting for impeachment is that they know more than we know. There's more in this report that's over at the Ford Building on Capitol Hill that contains dirty stuff about this President, that for whatever reason wasn't formally released, but is apparently infecting the thinking of a lot of Republicans. A lot of the borderline guys are going to vote for impeachment tomorrow because of what they've read."
The material on explosive allegations by Broaddrick and other women is believed to be comprehensive, with several House Republicans taking up to four hours to review it, according to Saturday's Washington Post. On Friday, Rep. Ann Northrup described the secret information as "specific and graphic."
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