Alleged Clinton sex assault story told on TV

February 25, 1999
Web posted at: 10:16 a.m. EST (1516 GMT)

(AllPolitics, February 25) -- An Arkansas woman who changed her story and now accuses Bill Clinton of sexually assaulting her in a hotel room 21 years ago says she didn't report the alleged incident at the time because she didn't think she would be believed.

In this story:

Broaddrick: I said 'no'
'My hatred for him is overwhelming'

Since Clinton was the attorney general of Arkansas at the time, "I didn't think anyone would believe me in the world," Juanita Broaddrick, 56, told NBC in an interview broadcast on Wednesday night.

Clinton refused comment earlier in the day on Broaddrick's allegations, saying he stood by the statement of his attorney, David Kendall, who called the accusations "absolutely false."

"Any allegation that the president assaulted Mrs. Broaddrick more than 20 years ago is absolutely false ... beyond that we're not going to comment," Kendall commented.

Broaddrick's story is a reversal of her affidavit in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case, in which she denied Clinton made unwelcome advances.

"These allegations are untrue and I had hoped that they would no longer haunt me, or cause ... disruption to my family," Broaddrick said in 1998 Jones affidavit.

Broaddrick agreed to the NBC interview -- taped last month but held until Wednesday so the network to research the story -- because she could not "hold it inside any longer." In the interim, Broaddrick's story was reported by other news outlets.

Broaddrick: I said 'no'

In her televised version of the alleged 1978 encounter, Broaddrick, then a registered nurse who had started a nursing home in Van Buren, Arkansas, said she felt no danger when she let Clinton into her Little Rock hotel room during a nursing administrators' conference.

Broaddrick said the two met for the first time earlier in the year when Clinton made a campaign stop at the nursing home. According to Broaddrick, Clinton invited her to "please stop by our campaign office" on her next visit to Little Rock.

Broaddrick said she called Clinton's campaign office when she arrived for the conference and was given the phone number of his apartment. At first, she says, he offered to meet her at the hotel coffee shop, but then suggested he come to her room because there were reporters in the coffee shop.

According to the accuser, once Clinton was in the room, he forced himself on her even though she rejected his advances by pushing him away and saying "no."

Juanita Broaddrick spoke with Dateline NBC detailing an alleged sexual assault by Bill Clinton:

"I first pushed him away and just told him, No, please don't do that ... I said, I'm married, and I have other things going on in my life, and this is something that I'm not interested in."

"...I tried to get away from him and I told him, No, that I didn't want this to happen, but he wouldn't listen to me."

"... I don't want to do anything. I do not have an agenda. I want to put all these rumors to rest."

Broaddrick was asked: "You're saying that Bill Clinton sexually assaulted you, that he raped you?"

"Yes," she answered.

'My hatred for him is overwhelming'

In the interview, taped January 20 but held by NBC until Wednesday night's airing, Broaddrick cried briefly as she detailed the alleged assault.

Asked what she now thought of Clinton, she replied: "My hatred for him is overwhelming."

Broaddrick told NBC nobody tried to intimidate her to remain silent and no one paid her to keep quiet or to speak out.

She said she had filed an affidavit in the Jones case denying she'd had any unwelcome advances from Clinton because she was unwilling to tell her story at that time.

Clinton opponents accused NBC of sitting on the interview in order to protect the president and say that the interview, had it appeared earlier, could have had an impact on the Senate impeachment trial that ended with Clinton's acquittal February 12.

NBC said it had needed time to complete reporting on a complicated story. While the network tried to check out Broaddrick's account, The Wall Street Journal did its own interview with Broaddrick, and other media organizations followed.

"I just couldn't hold it inside any longer," Broaddrick said in trying to explain why she is finally coming forward with her account. She said she didn't want her granddaughters and nieces asking her, "Why didn't you tell what this man did to you?"

She said she went to a fund-raising event for Clinton weeks after the alleged assault.

"I think I was still in denial," she said. "And I still felt very guilty at that time that it was my fault by letting him come to the room."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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White House denies allegations of 1978 sexual assault by Clinton (2-20-99) Starr quietly continues White House investigation (02-20-99)

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