Huma Abedin, a longtime aide to former U.S. first lady, former secretary of state and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, described sexual assault on U.S. senators. The longtime close aide of Hillary Clinton wrote in a new book that she had been sexually assaulted by a U.S. senator. But she "covered up" the incident until allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh years later awakened her memory.
Huma Abedin made a shocking statement in her memoir, Both/And: a Life in Many Worlds, to be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy of the allegations in which Huma Abedin did not mention the name of the senator or his party, nor did it provide any other clues about his identity.
In the allegations, Abeddin also detailed her experiences working for Hillary Clinton between 2001 and 2009, when she was a former first lady, future secretary of state and presidential candidate, and she was also a senator from New York State. The article was published shortly after describing how the Abedin and Hillary Clinton couples attended a wedding in Palm Beach, Florida, in January 2005, shortly after Donald Trump and his third wife, Melania Knauss.
Huma Abedin, who was born in Michigan but grew up in Saudi Arabia, wrote of the incident, "I felt like I was back in my hometown and attending an Arab wedding. Then, after describing a Washington dinner party attended by only "a few senators and their aides" (which Hillary didn't attend), Abedin wrote, "I ended up walking out with a senator, and soon we stopped in front of his building and he invited me in for coffee." "As soon as I went in, he made me lie comfortably on the couch."
She said the senator took off his coat and rolled up his sleeves to make coffee, and they continued to talk. Then, in an instant, everything changed. He pounced on my right, put his left hand around my shoulder, kissed me, stuck his tongue into my mouth, and pressed me back to the couch, "I was so shocked, I pushed him away, all I wanted was the last 10 seconds to be erased." ”
Huma Abedin wrote that the senator seemed surprised at the time, but he apologized, saying he had "misunderstood" her "all along." When she considered how to leave "without causing a bad ending," she wrote, the senator asked her if she wanted to stay, "and then I said something I would only say in my 20s — 'I'm sorry' — and walked out and tried to act as casual as possible." ”
Abedin also wrote that she and the senator had deliberately been estranged for "a few days" but later bumped into him on Capitol Hill, where she nodded in agreement when he asked if she was still a friend. Abbedin writes that Hillary then joined them" "as if she knew I needed rescue, even though I hadn't told her anything about that night." ”
Huma Abedin wrote that she maintained friendly relations with the senator and quickly "buried this thing she wanted to forget," succeeding in "completely" erasing it from her mind.
Then, fast forward to the end of 2018, when Kavanaugh was nominated by Donald Trump as a Supreme Court justice. Professor Christine Blasey Ford at the time accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting at a party years ago, an allegation Kavanaugh denied. Christine Brissey Ford testified in the Senate that the sexual assault "completely changed" her life. A psychotherapy in 2012 made her "do her best to suppress memories of sexual assault because telling the details would bring me back to that experience and trigger panic and anxiety."
Although Kavanaugh became a major symbol of an era in which allegations of sexual misconduct and sexual assault have ousted some prominent figures, Republicans have not wavered in his appointment and he has also been officially confirmed as a Supreme Court justice. In response, Abedin writes, when she read that Christine Blasey Ford "was accused of 'handy' recalls" of her alleged sexual assault, her memory of her experience on the couch of the unnamed senator was triggered.
Abedin with husband Anthony Weiner
Earlier this month, an excerpt from a book published in Vogue also recounted the experiences of Hillary Clinton's longtime close aide when Huma Abedin's husband, a former congressman and New York mayoral candidate, Anthony Weiner, was repeatedly embroiled in scandals over explicit sexual acts on social media. Now, Abedin and Weiner have become estranged.