Huma Abedin, a longtime close associate of Hillary Clinton, has written in a new book that she was sexually assaulted by a US senator, an incident she “buried” until the accusations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh sparked her memory years later.
Abedin makes the shocking claim in a memoir, Both / Y, to be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy. Abedin does not name the senator or his party, nor does he give any other clues as to his identity.
Abedin details her alleged assault by describing her work for Clinton when the former first lady and future secretary of state and presidential candidate was a US senator from New York, between 2001 and 2009.
The passage comes shortly after a description of how Abedin and the Clintons came to attend Donald Trump’s wedding to his third wife, Melania Knauss, in Palm Beach, Florida, in January 2005.
On that occasion, Abedin, who was born in Michigan but grew up in Saudi Arabia, writes: “I felt like I was at an Arab wedding at home.”
Then, after describing a dinner in Washington that was attended by “some senators and their aides,” but not Clinton, Abedin writes, “I ended up dating one of the senators, and we soon stopped in front of his building and he invited me in. .for coffee. Once inside, he told me to get comfortable on the couch. “
She says the senator took off his jacket, rolled up his sleeves, and made coffee while they kept talking.
“Then, in an instant, everything changed. He dropped to my right, put his left arm around my shoulder and kissed me, thrusting his tongue into my mouth, pressing me against the couch.
“I was so shocked that I pushed it away. All I wanted was for the last 10 seconds to be erased. “
Abedin writes that the senator seemed surprised but apologized and said he had “misunderstood” her “all this time.” As he considered how to leave “without this ending badly,” he writes, the senator asked him if he wanted to stay.
“Then I said something that would only have occurred to my 20-year-old version: ‘I’m so sorry,’ and I left, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.”
Abedin writes that she stayed away from the senator “for a few days,” but then ran into him on Capitol Hill, nodding when asked if they were still friends. Clinton then joined them, Abedin writes, “as if he knew he needed rescue even though I hadn’t told him about that night.”
Abedin writes that she remained friends with the senator and soon “buried the incident”, which she wanted to forget, managing to erase it from her mind “completely”.
Then, in late 2018, Kavanaugh was nominated to the supreme court by Donald Trump. A teacher, Christine Blasey Ford, accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault at a party years earlier, a charge that Kavanaugh denied.
Testifying in the Senate, Ford said the alleged assault “dramatically altered” her life, before a therapy session in 2012 prompted her to do “everything possible to suppress memories of the assault because telling the details brought me back to life. the experience and it caused me panic. ” attacks and anxiety ”.
Although Kavanaugh became a prominent symbol of the #MeToo era, in which allegations of sexual misconduct and assault have brought down prominent men, Republicans did not waver in their support for his appointment and he was duly confirmed in court.
Abedin’s recollection of her experience on the anonymous senator’s couch, she writes, was activated when she read that Christine Blasey Ford “was accused of ‘conveniently’ remembering” her alleged assault.
Earlier this month, a abstract of the book published by Vogue was about Abedin’s experiences when her husband, former Congressman and New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, became involved in repeated scandal for sexually explicit behavior on social media.
Abedin and Weiner are now estranged.
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Information and support for anyone affected by problems of rape or sexual abuse is available from the following organizations. In the USA, Rainn offers support at 800-656-4673. In the United Kingdom, Rape crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800 Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism