Despite the WH refusal to provide Clinton's schedule on March 6-8 1991, it really will be quite easy to find out if Clinton had her called out of a Nursing Convention to meet with him and apologize, as she alleges.
ABC On-line
2-24-99
ABCNEWS.com
V A N B U R E N, Ark., Feb. 24 — The allegation, that Bill Clinton sexually assaulted an Arkansas woman 20 years ago, has hovered around the edges of his intrigues for years.
Pursued by Clinton's political enemies in 1992, subpoenaed in the Paula Jones case in 1997, interviewed by investigators for Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and the House Judiciary Committee,
and chased by journalists from around the world, the woman at the center of the story has finally gone public.
Within the past few days, the story of Juanita Broaddrick—known from Starr's report as Jane Doe No. 5 — has appeared in the mainstream press, first on the Wall Street Journal's editorial page and then
in the Washington Post and The New York Times. NBC News tonight aired the first public intervie with Broaddrick.
ABCNEWS also has had a series of conversations, many of which were off the record or on deep background, with the retired nursing home operator. She has now permitted us to put those statements on
the record. This is her story:
In 1978, Broaddrick, then the owner of a nursing home in Van Buren, Ark., was working as a volunteer on the Clinton gubernatorial campaign. Broaddrick says she first met Clinton, then the attorney general, when he came by her nursing home during a campaign swing through Van Buren.
Shortly thereafter, Broaddrick headed to Little Rock for a nursing home convention. During the trip, Broaddrick says, she took Clinton up on an offer to meet again, calling him to set up a visit.
Clinton agreed and Broaddrick suggested they meet for coffee in the lobby of the Camelot Hotel, where she was staying. But the meeting moved up to her room, she says, when Clinton suggested there
would be too many reporters in the lobby.
While she expected only to have coffee with Clinton, Broaddrick says, Clinton came to her room and forced her to have sexual intercourse with him. Broaddrick says she tried to fight Clinton off but eventually gave in after determining he was too big to push away. She also says that Clinton bit her lip during the encounter.
In a news conference today, Clinton refused to answer a reporter's question about the incident, referring people to tersely worded denial from his lawyers released earlier in the day.
The statement read: “any allegation that the president assaulted Broaddrick more than 20 years ago is absolutely false. Beyond that, we are not going to comment.”
Friend Backs Story
About an hour after the incident, Broaddrick says she called a friend for help. That friend, Norma Rogers, a nurse from her nursing home who was staying at the same hotel, says that she went to Broaddrick's
room shortly after the alleged incident and iced down her swollen lip. Soon afterwards, they began the two-hour drive back to Van Buren.
On the ride back, Rogers says, Broaddrick made it clear that her encounter with Clinton was not consensual.
But Broaddrick filed no report with the police and, since she wasn't treated by a doctor, there are no medical records to corroborate her story.
They Meet Again?
A few weeks later, Broaddrick says, she saw Clinton at a campaign party near Van Buren. She says he did not speak to her, though she claims his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, approached to offer thanks for working on the campaign.
Why would Broaddrick attend a party for a man who allegedly assaulted her just weeks earlier? She says her then-husband, Gary Hickey — whom she hadn't told about the incident — wanted to go.
Broaddrick divorced Hickey shortly thereafter and remarried in 1981.
According to Broaddrick, she and Clinton had no communication until 1984, when she received a letter congratulating her nursing home for being voted the best in the state. On the letter, Clinton wrote a
brief handwritten note saying “I admire you so much.”
Clinton Apology Alleged
Seven years passed, Broaddrick says, until she saw Clinton again. In March of 1991, Broaddrick says she was back at the Camelot Hotel, attending another state nursing home convention. According to
Broaddrick, Clinton had her pulled out of the convention for a private meeting where he offered what she calls a “profuse apology.”
“It was clear he was trying to get forgiveness,” Broaddrick says.
Broaddrick did not understand the timing of the apology until a few months later when Clinton announced his candidacy for president. She quickly concluded the two events were related.
Rogers again backed up Broaddrick's story, this time saying she was saw Broaddrick get called out of the meeting. Rogers also said Broaddrick told her of Clinton's apology shortly afterwards.
Records from the Arkansas Nursing Home Association show a convention was held March 6-8, 1991, at the Camelot Hotel, though Clinton's schedule on that day was not made available to
ABCNEWS despite repeated requests.
Clinton Legal Team Involved
Although Broaddrick had never publicly discussed the incident, her story had been rumored in Arkansas political circles for years.
During the 1992 campaign she says she was visited by Sheffield Nelson, a longtime Clinton foe who ran against him in the 1990 governor's race. Nelson tried to convince Broaddrick to come forward then, but Broaddrick refused, saying she thought the damage to her family would be too great. Then, in late 1997, Broaddrick was subpoenaed in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case. In an effort to spare her family any embarrassment, Broaddrick says she told her lawyer to draft an affidavit denying any
relationship or sexual encounter with Clinton.
The attorney, Bill Walters, then contacted White House counsel Bruce Lindsey and the office of Bob Bennett, Clinton's personal attorney in the Jones case.
According to Walters, the Clinton lawyers helped write the affidavit, providing Walters with examples of previous statements filed by witnesses sympathetic to the president in the Jones case. Broaddrick signed the affidavit, denying that she had been assaulted by Clinton, on Jan. 2, 1998.
President Clinton was not asked about Broaddrick when he testified under oath Jan. 17, 1998, because Judge Susan Webber Wright ruled that only women who were state or federal employees
between 1986 and the present could be called as witnesses.
Starr Resurrects Allegations
Later last year, with the Monica Lewinsky investigation in full tilt, Broaddrick was approached by FBI agents working for Starr. After being offered immunity from prosecution for lying under oath in the Jones
case, she told investigators that her affidavit was not truthful. She later gave a more detailed description of events to investigators for the House Judiciary Committee, according to several sources close to the investigation.
According to those sources, Broaddrick said she was assaulted and that her affidavit in the Jones case was false, but insisted there was no pressure applied by the White House or anyone else.
In the weeks before the House voted last December to impeach the president, Republican leaders urged their colleagues to make the trip to the Ford Building to study details of the Broaddrick allegations.
It is unclear if the allegations changed any votes. One member of Congress said it made Clinton look like a “sexual predator.”
After the Impeachment vote, House investigators, who were trying to prove a pattern and practice of behavior to back up the article of impeachment charging Clinton with obstructing justice, continued to
push the Broaddrick case.
House investigators told ABCNEWS they believed the Broaddrick case was similar to the Lewinsky situation since, they argued, Clinton knew both affidavits were false.
As a result, a bitter debate ensued among House managers who were trying to decide whether Broaddrick's claims should have been introduced as evidence in the Senate trial. As it became clear that
the Senate opposed broadening the impeachment inquiry, the effort to introduce Broaddrick's testimony failed.
Trial Riled Broaddrick
As the Senate trial progressed, however, Broaddrick says she felt a pressing need to tell her story, saying she believed Americans should know more about Clinton before the end of impeachment case.
She agreed to an interview with NBC News, which was conducted on January 20 and aired tonight.
Broaddrick, who lives comfortably in this small, historic town in Northwest Arkansas, says she has no plans to file charges. Even if she had, the statute of limitations on rape in Arkansas is six years. There are varying descriptions of assault but the ones that fit closest to the description of Broaddrick's claim also
carry a six-year statute of limitation.
Broaddrick says she knows her anonymity will now be a thing of the past, but says she believes it will be worth it.
“The American people need to know what kind of man he is,” Broaddrick said in a recent phone interview. “This is not going away.”
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