He has already found political asylum, in the White House...
A BULLY IN THE WHITE HOUSE? - IBD Page One
Investor's Business Daily
3-11-1999 Paul Sperry
Do Women's Charges Show A Pattern of Threats?
It's a diverse group. Some politically active, some not. ''I hate politics,'' says one. Many are from Arkansas, but two are from the Washington area and one's from Beverly Hills.
At the same time, they have a lot in common. All nine are women. And nearly all of them are former employees or campaign workers who say they at one point admired the man they worked for.
All now say they fear him.
A growing club of women charge that Bill Clinton personally assaulted them or, through his ''agents'' or ''people,'' threatened to do them or their families physical harm. Some are vague about the threats. Others are quite specific.
But a pattern is clear, not to mention disturbing: One after another, women are accusing the president of being, at a minimum, a bully; at worst, a rapist. And all of them say they're afraid for their safety so long as he remains in power.
Some close to them say female White House staffers working close to president should also be concerned.
''Mr. Clinton is an abuser of women. And women who surround him, such as his staff at the White House, are at risk,'' said Marie-Jose Ragab, head of a Virginia chapter of the National Organization for Women that broke away from the national group after writing an amicus brief in the Paula Jones case.
''Is there anyone to protect them?'' she added. ''Can they report an assault safely, or will they and their families be threatened?''
''He is a threat to women there,'' agreed a lawyer for Dolly Kyle Browning, who claims Clinton aide Bruce Lindsey threatened to destroy Browning if she broke her silence about her affair with Clinton.
Browning is suing Clinton and Lindsey, among others, for racketeering and defamation. The White House denies the charges, and lawyers have filed to yesterday the federal suit.
Calls to the White House on the issue of female staffers' safety were referred to the counsel's office, which did not reply.
In the past the president has denied charges of assault or threats through his lawyers or spokesmen. And, to be sure, there is no direct proof that Clinton or anyone working on his behalf has bullied women.
Still, for the first time close former aides of the president are expressing doubts about his version of the truth. And many of the women's accounts are both detailed and strikingly similar.
Juanita Broaddrick. A former campaign worker, she charges Clinton raped her at the Camelot Hotel in Little Rock, Ark., on April 5, 1978. He was the state attorney general then. Through his personal lawyer, Clinton has denied any ''assault'' took place.
She kept mum for 21 years. Jones' lawyers, who subpoenaed Broaddrick, say she was ''threatened'' to keep quiet. Broaddrick told NBC News she was not.
But she signed what she now says is a false affidavit denying the assault, and Lindsey reportedly provided her lawyer with a model affidavit for her lawyer.
Also, she told NBC she was scared to come forward: ''I was afraid that I would be destroyed like so many of the other women.''
Two former Clinton aides, Dee Dee Myers and David Gergen, this week both publicly urged the president to personally deny the rape charge, if he can.
Kathleen Willey. An ex-White House volunteer, Willey claims that on Nov. 29, 1993, she was groped by the president in the same Oval Office room where he later had consensual sex with intern Monica Lewinsky.
She kept quiet about it until Jones' lawyers subpoenaed her, too. About two months before her Jan. 11, 1997, deposition, Willey found ''masses'' of nails in three of her car tires. They were stuck in the same six-inch area in the center tread of both front tires.
''It didn't look like an accident,'' said the owner of the Richmond, Va.-area shop that replaced the damaged tires.
Shortly after, Willey's cat disappeared. And two days before her deposition, Willey told ABC News that a jogger stopped her and asked her about her tires, her cat and her children - by name. ''Don't you get the message?'' he allegedly asked.
Investigators with Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's office are investigating whether the events were part of a White House effort to abort Willey's testimony. An Alexandria, Va., grand jury is hearing the case, Starr's office says.
Gennifer Flowers. Another Clinton mistress, Flowers worked for the state of Arkansas. In 1992, she revealed their affair - and had audio tapes to prove it.
Then the trouble began, she claims.
''My home had been ransacked. I had received threats. My mother received threats. People were getting beaten. I was afraid for my life,'' she told CNN's Larry King in January 1998.
She said her home had been broken into three times and ransacked the third. She told then-candidate Clinton about the burglaries.
''When I told Bill about it, he said, 'Do you think they were looking for something on us?' '' Flowers said. ''When he said it to me, there was just a tone in his voice. And I thought, you probably had this done to me.''
Linda Tripp. The former White House aide, who worked with both the late White House Deputy Counsel Vince Foster and Lewinsky, says Lindsey told her she would be ''destroyed'' if she went public with dirt she had on the president. Lindsey's lawyer denies it was a threat.
Lewinsky, in a taped phone call, warned Tripp it was ''dangerous'' to talk to the press, and reminded her she had ''two children to think about.''
King interviewed her last month.
''You have a fear of your life?'' he asked. ''Oh, absolutely,'' she replied.
Monica Lewinksy. Phone tapes record Lewinksy - at the time the White House was pressuring her to sign what turned out to be a false affidavit -intimating to Tripp: ''I would not cross those people for fear of my life.'' She also said: ''My mother's big fear is that he's (Clinton's) going to send someone out to kill me.''
Lewinsky, in an ABC interview earlier this month, said she wasn't being ''truthful'' when she made those remarks.
Sally Perdue. A former Miss Arkansas, she claims a Democratic Party operative tried to hush her up during the 1992 campaign about an alleged affair with Clinton.
The man warned her ''they knew that I went jogging by myself and he couldn't guarantee what would happen to my pretty little legs,'' she told the London Sunday-Telegraph.
But some in Arkansas doubt her credibility. ''Sally Perdue's a nut,'' said Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Gene Lyons. ''I wouldn't believe anything she says.''
Elizabeth Ward Gracen. A former Miss America, she claims to have had a 1983 fling with then- Arkansas Gov. Clinton. She says she kept quiet about it during the 1992 campaign after getting threatening phone calls. The calls started again, she says, after she was subpoenaed in the Jones case. ''I was physically scared,'' she told The New York Post.
Gracen told the Toronto Sun last September that Clinton is ''a very dangerous man.'' She also said: ''I've had to be very careful. There was a lot of pressure on family and friends; people were being staked out.'' She says the IRS audited her after she spoke out.
Why did she decide to come forward? The Lewinsky scandal, she says, weakened Clinton's power and nmade him less of a threat.
Lyons cast doubt on her tale of fear. ''I remember her going on TV and saying she had a one-night stand (with Clinton)'' he said. ''And it was nothing but sweet.''
Paula Jones. ''Through this whole thing I've felt very scared,'' she told King last month. ''I don't drive crazy, so I won't run off the road; and I'm not suicidal. So if something happened to me, there's a reason.'' |
