Who Said It: Bill Cosby's Lawyers or Sid Blumenthal?
Now that Bill Cosby has been officially charged with sexual assault in connection with a 2004 incident in Pennsylvania, another forgotten rape accusation against a seemingly-untouchable American figure has resurfaced. With the help of a Twitter account, former nursing home executive Juanita Broaddrick caught the media’s attention this week by reiterating a claim she first publicly made almost 20 years ago: Bill Clinton raped her.
I was 35 years old when Bill Clinton, Ark. Attorney General raped me and Hillary tried to silence me. I am now 73....it never goes away.
— Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) January 6, 2016
Broaddrick has alleged for years that Clinton raped her in 1978, while both Clinton and Broaddrick were in Little Rock, Arkansas, for a conference. She didn’t go to the police and Clinton was never charged in connection with the incident. By the early 1990s, she had confided in enough people that the rumor was well-known in Arkansas political circles, but it wasn’t until 1999 that Broaddrick went to the press with her story.
Against Broaddrick’s accusation—and other allegations, by other women, of sexual misconduct—Clinton was vigorously defended by his special assistant and longtime confidante Sidney Blumenthal. Blumenthal cast significant doubt upon claims made by Broaddrick and others, while also working to discredit Clinton’s partner in a consensual affair, Monica Lewinsky.
There are many ways to discredit an accuser in the press; it so happens that Cosby’s lawyers have employed some of the same tactics Blumenthal used way back when. Can you separate Blumenthal’s statements from those made by Cosby’s lawyers today? Take our quiz and find out.
Sources: Fox News, The Clinton Wars as quoted by Vox, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter
Photos via Getty and AP. Contact the author at allie@gawker.com.