The Mysterious Case Of Juanita Broaddrick
“We will never know the truth behind Juanita Broaddrick’s claim that Bill Clinton raped her in a Little Rock hotel room in l978. The most you can say about it, which is also the least you can say about it, is that her story is credible-even if it was pushed into the open by Paula Jones, legitimized by a footnote in the Starr report, promoted on the Internet by the Hillary-killed-Vince-Foster set and forced into the mainstream media by Matt Drudge, Fox News and other practitioners of right-wing sleaze. True, when summoned by Jones’s lawyers, Broaddrick signed an affidavit denying the story she is now telling; true, Kenneth Starr and the FBI found her account inconclusive, as they would many other twenty-one-year-old accounts. But investigations by NBC News and reporting from the Washington Post poked no major holes in it. She has as much corroboration as Anita Hill — friends who say she told them about the assault at the time, one of whom says she saw her immediately after with a bruised and swollen lip. So far as we know, Broaddrick has no motive to lie. Of course, the President’s men are right to say you can’t disprove an ancient charge like this. But the best Clinton’s defenders can come up with is that rape doesn’t fit his “MO”-as if, after all the backing and filling and prevaricating and outright lying, we know what this man’s MO really is.”
- Katha Pollitt, “Re: Juanita Broaddrick.”
Did Bill Clinton rape Juanita Broaddrick?
By far the most serious and the most credible allegation of sexual misconduct against Bill Clinton has come from that woman. For the longest time, only right-wing news sites like Breitbart, The Daily Caller, and The Blaze took her claims with any seriousness. It was only when Donald Trump brought them up during his election campaign and with the rise of #MeToo, that the Left also began to look seriously into the accusations. It should, however, be worth noting that the late left-wing journalist Christopher Hitchens tried, until his dying day, to raise more awareness of the validity of her claims:
“What of the “she”? If the allegation is false, then Broaddrick is not just getting her facts wrong. She is deliberately fabricating one of the most damning charges that any one person can make against another. She must be a wicked or deluded or vicious person. There seems no escaping this corollary conclusion. There also seems no reason at all for reaching it. Where is the famous Clintonian rapid-response team? Has it no pride? Can it not find or produce any shadow of a doubt to cast on Broaddrick’s character? I think that if it could, we would know by now.”
While it goes without saying that those who support serial predators like Trump clearly only believe Broaddrick for political reasons, that fact shouldn’t prevent an objective look into the claims. After all, if Clinton really is a rapist, then that would require a complete reassessment of his record, and the Democrats can no more claim him to be heroic.
Broaddrick’s claims date back to 1978, when she was still a nurse. When she alleges that Clinton raped her at the Camelot Hotel in Arkansas. Broaddrick’s story first gained public attention during NBC’s Dateline in 1999, at the height of the Lewinsky scandal. In her interview with Lisa Myers, Broaddrick first speaks warmly of Clinton, who was then the Attorney General and running for Governor, “I thought he was just something that was really gonna be good for Arkansas. He was a very charismatic man that had bright ideas for our state. I just really liked him.” Supporting Clinton, it turns out, was her first and only political campaign. Clinton had even visited Broaddrick’s nursing home. Not long after that, Broaddrick with Clinton again in the Camelot Hotel to avoid reporters. They were to discuss nursing homes. She trusted him as a friend, and felt no danger in inviting him in.
Broaddrick goes on to tell Dateline that Clinton led her to the hotel window, and pointed to an old building he planned on restoring. Suddenly, he turned her around and started kissing her. Broaddrick pushed him away, begging Clinton to stop. She claims that Clinton kissed her again, this time by biting on her lip, before violently raping her, tearing off her skirt and pantyhose in the process. Once he finished, Clinton put on his sunglasses and told her to put some ice on her lip. The whole event occurred under half an hour. There were no witnesses, nor did anyone see Clinton enter or leave Broaddrick’s room or the hotel.
However, Dateline was also able to interview one of Broaddrick’s friends, Norma Kelsey, who backs up her story. Kelsey went with Broaddrick on a business trip to Little Rock and also shared a hotel room with her. Broaddrick told her that she was planning to see Clinton on the day when she was allegedly raped. When Kelsey called at lunchtime, she claims that Broaddrick was crying and when they met again, her mouth was swollen and her pantyhose was ripped. Broaddrick never reported to the police because she supposedly feared Clinton, who was then the Attorney General.
Kelsey, however, wasn’t the only one to corroborate Broaddrick’s account. Dateline also interviewed her second husband, David Broaddrick, with whom she was having an affair during her marriage to Gary Hickey. David remembers his wife’s black lip and being told that she was raped by Clinton. Three other friends of Broaddrick, Susan Lewis, Louise Ma, and Jean Darden, also claim to have been told about the alleged rape at the time. It should be noted that Darden and Kelsey are sisters who despise Clinton because he commuted the sentence of their father’s murderer. That being said, Dateline found all of their stories to be consistent.
Clinton also supposedly attempted to reconcile. Dateline has said that later in 1984, Broaddrick received a letter from Bill Clinton thanking her for her service in nursing, in which he wrote, “I admire you very much.” Broaddrick never had any direct contact with Clinton until 1991, during a nursing home meeting with her friends, Jean Darden and Norma Kelsey. Clinton supposedly apologized to her, saying that he wasn’t the man he used to be. We have a lot of testimonies here, but what does the evidence say?
According to The Washington Post, Broaddrick could not remember the date or the month the supposed rape. They also noted that Broaddrick went to a Clinton fundraiser three weeks later. Broaddrick has defended herself by saying, “I still felt very guilty at that time, that it was my fault. By letting him come to the room, I had given him the wrong idea.” Broaddrick’s then-husband, Gary Hickey, said he could not recall any injury on Broaddrick’s lip. In their divorce records, it turns out that Broaddrick cited an incident in which Hickey hit her in the mouth. Broaddrick again defended herself by saying that this only happened once.
The Post adds that NBC found records from the Camelot Hotel proving that Broaddrick attended a nursing home conference on April 25, 1978. The White House at the time refused to comment on where Clinton was on that day. NBC concluded after looking through the Arkansas papers at the time, that Clinton was most likely in Little Rock that day, as he had no public schedule when the rape is alleged to have occurred. He did attend a fundraiser, but this wasn’t until well into the evening.
Unless a ban or a moratorium is declared on the statute of limitations, it is unlikely that Broaddrick’s case will ever be heard in a court of law. Broaddrick did try to see Clinton punished when she signed on as a Jane Doe No. 5 during the Paula Jones case. However, the Post reports that when the attorneys for Jones cited Broaddrick in the court papers, she filed an affidavit calling the allegations “untrue.” Broaddrick yet again defended this contradiction, saying, “I didn’t want to be forced to testify about the most horrific event of my life.” Indeed, she later recanted the affidavit, when approached by FBI agents for Kenneth Starr, an independent counsel who led the impeachment trial against Clinton. Starr, however, found her account to be inconclusive. Broaddrick also spoke with David P. Shippers, who was a chief investigator during the Clinton impeachment trials for the House Judiciary Committee Republicans. His staffers found Broaddrick to be the most credible witness they had ever spoken to, but chose not to use the story in the trials, since it “had no specific bearing on the impeachable offenses.”
Two of the most interesting articles I’ve read about Broaddrick come from Jim Newell’s “Is Juanita Broaddrick Telling the Truth?” and Bill Press’s “Clinton Rape Charge Can’t Be Proved.” Press openly admits in his article that “The truth is, we don’t know. And we’ll never know.” Press, however, still discredits Broaddrick by listing a number of serious doubts about the matter. Newell’s article also doesn’t take a definitive stance, but shows how defenders and opponents of Clinton, could interpret the same evidence. I am now going to put up Press’s questions, and answer them with Newell’s interpretations. I do this so that those reading this can understand that this issue is more complex than either left or the right may be willing to admit.
Press asks:
“In 1997, Broaddrick signed an affidavit and gave a deposition in the Jones case, denying twice under oath that Clinton raped her. “These allegations are untrue and there is no truth to these rumors.” If Clinton did rape her, 20 years later, why would she still not tell the truth?”
“Last year, Broaddrick told independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr that her Jones testimony was false, but that she had been under absolutely no pressure from the president or the White House to file a false affidavit. So, did she lie to the Jones team? Or did she lie to Starr? Or is she now lying to NBC? How do we know?”
Newell answers:
Clinton Is Innocent: Broaddrick is either a liar or has an unreliable memory.
Clinton Is Guilty: Broaddrick’s initial denials indicate only that she shunned publicity. That’s why she never reported the rape; rebuffed advances from Clinton’s political enemies who, in 1992, urged her to go public; and lied to Paula Jones’ lawyers. She eventually told the FBI the truth in 1998 only because her son — a lawyer — advised her against lying to federal investigators. (At the time, it was reasonable to suspect she’d be hauled before a grand jury.) She granted media interviews only after her name was released by Paula Jones’ lawyers, and after tabloids printed wildly untrue stories about her. Given her aversion to politics and celebrity, Broaddrick would seem to have little or nothing to gain by falsely accusing Clinton of rape. Clinton, on the other hand, has plenty to gain from falsely denying her charges.”
Press asks:
“Broaddrick says she can remember every detail of the rape, except the month and day it occurred. If it scarred her for life, wouldn’t she remember the date? Or at least the month?”
Newell answers:
Clinton Is Innocent: It is hard to believe that a raped woman would forget the date. The fact that Clinton was in Little Rock is hardly remarkable.
Clinton is Guilty: The detail about wanting to spruce up the prison sounds ‘very, very much like our Bill.’ ”
Press asks:
“Within one year of the alleged rape, Broaddrick attended a fund-raiser for Clinton and accepted appointment by him to a state advisory board. Why did she still want to support a man who raped her?”
Newell answers:
Clinton is Innocent: A rape victim wouldn’t attend the fundraiser of her rapist.
Clinton is Guilty: Broaddrick says she was “still in denial at that time.”
Press asks:
“Broaddrick also told two girlfriends, who are sisters, what happened, which both confirm. But both admit they hate Clinton because he commuted the death sentence of the man who murdered their father. Can they be trusted?”
“Broaddrick claims Clinton kissed her so hard he left her lip visibly black and blue, and she covered up by telling people she’d had an accident. But her first husband, Gary Hickey, says he remembers no such injury when she returned from Little Rock, nor such a story.”
“Broaddrick says she told her husband, David, what happened. But, at the time, David was not her husband. He was her boyfriend, with whom she was cheating on her first husband. Question: What if Clinton and Broaddrick had consensual sex? If you’re cheating on your husband, and then cheat on your boyfriend, do you tell your boyfriend the truth?
“One year later, Broaddrick filed divorce papers against Hickey, claiming he struck her on the mouth. Was that the only time?”
Newell answers:
Clinton Is Innocent: The friends’ testimony isn’t trustworthy. Kelsey and her sister have a grudge against Clinton because, as governor, he commuted the life sentence of the man who murdered their father. Broaddrick’s current husband might lie on her behalf. Moreover, even if the friends are telling the truth, Broaddrick might have been lying 21 years ago. There is limited evidence that her first husband was abusive, so maybe she cooked up the story to explain a bloody lip he had given her. And if she was raped, why didn’t she tell her own husband?
Clinton Is Guilty: If five friends say her story hasn’t changed over 21 years, we can conclude that either that she’s an unusually consistent liar or that her memory is reliable.
The matter becomes more complicated with Hillary thrown into the mix. In an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Broaddrick recounted meeting with Hillary that happened two weeks after the alleged rape. The local pharmacist who drove her and Bill there, allegedly told Broaddrick that she had been the topic of conversation. As Hillary entered the room, Bill turned away and she took a hold of Broaddrick’s hand, saying (as paraphrased by Broaddrick), “I’ve heard so much about you, and I’ve been dying to meet you. I wanted to meet you….I just want you to know, how much Bill and I appreciate how much you do for him.” Broaddrick thanked her and tried to turn away, but Hillary allegedly squeezed her hands tight. “Do you understand everything that you do?” For Broaddrick, the implication was clear: Hillary knew about the rape and thanked her for her silence. Broaddrick claims that this had been the first time Hillary scared her.
Now, I may be wrong here, but it’s a little too extraordinary to believe that Hillary conspired to silence Broaddrick on the basis of a single handshake. It’s unlikely Bill would have ever told Hillary about his encounter with Broaddrick. We know for a fact that Bill kept his affairs private from Hillary. In the visceral passages from Hillary’s book Living History, she records confronting him about Lewinsky, saying, “Gulping for air, I started crying and yelling at him. What do you mean? What are you saying? Why did you lie to me?” Hillary probably just doesn’t believe Broaddrick, and as I noted earlier, there’s plenty of reason not to. Broaddrick’s fear of Hillary probably comes from some personal trauma. Whether that is the result of being raped, guilt over an affair, or something else entirely, I cannot say.
My conclusion is that I have no conclusion. The best I can do is say that Broaddrick probably had sex with Clinton in the hotel that day, but a convincing case could be made on either side that as to whether or not it was consensual. That may not be what you want to hear, but sometimes, life is frustratingly ambiguous, and our most pressing questions are never answered. Wherever the truth lies, the allegation will long remain an unavoidable footnote in the presidency of Bill Clinton.
