- Huma Abedin described an alleged sexual assault in an upcoming book, the Guardian reported.
- She described pushing the senator away as he forcefully kissed her after a dinner in DC.
- Abedin said she stayed friendly with the senator and repressed the memory of the event for years.
Former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin said that she was sexually assaulted by a US Senator in 2005.
The claim was made in excerpts of her upcoming book “Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds,” which were obtained by the Guardian and the BBC.
Abedin did not name the Senator. According to the Guardian, she said the incident occurred in Washington, DC, not long after she and the Clintons attend the wedding of Donald and Melania Trump in January 2005.
She was working for Hillary Clinton at the time, who was then a US Senator for New York.
Abedin, per the reports, said that the dinner was attended by “a few senators and their aides.”
She said she “ended up walking out with one of the senators, and soon we stopped in front of his building and he invited me in for coffee. Once inside, he told me to make myself comfortable on the couch.”
Abedin gave no identifying details of the senator other than his gender. There was 86 male US Senators at the time.
She wrote that the senator then removed his jacket and began to make coffee. Then, per the Guardian, she said that “in an instant, it all changed.”
“He plopped down to my right, put his left arm around my shoulder, and kissed me, pushing his tongue into my mouth, pressing me back on the sofa.
“I was so utterly shocked, I pushed him away. All I wanted was for the last 10 seconds to be erased.”
Abedin said the senator apologized for misreading the situation and said they remained friendly afterward, adding that she “buried the incident” entirely in her memory, the Guardian reported.
Abedin said she did not recall what happened until allegations of sexual assault were made against Brett Kavanaugh in the run-up to his confirmation as a Supreme Court Justice.
Abedin said that her memory resurfaced when Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of assaulting her in their college years, was challenged on why she had only recalled the incident in 2012.
Kavanaugh strongly denied the allegations, which did not prevent his confirmation.
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