Had Lewinski actually accused him of rape, she probably could have made that charge stick given the fact she had the dress. With Willey and the others out there basically saying the same thing, he would likely have been impeached.
I’m pretty sure of that.
What I think is possible, what I believe, and what can be proven are wildly different things.
As far as whether I believe Willey or the others, I do. But the reason why is because of Lewinski.
I’ve been accused of infidelity before, by coworkers. There was LESS THAN NONE of that going on. Didn’t stop my VP from hauling me in and talking to me about it. Thank goodness I was working for a startup, and my wife knew me well enough to know I wouldn’t do that.
What you can prove and what you believe are very, very different things. To this day, there are qualified conservative jurists that will not countenance an invitation to join SCOTUS. Not after Thomas.
In a day and age where we are talking about putting women in submarines and forward deployed combat units, I know longer subscribe to the theory that victims are just too traumatized to come forward and file something if they have the goods on a rapist or abuser. You can pull hair out by the roots, you can document bruising, you can capture DNA under fingernails, you can wound a guy during fellatio.
Not a chance. Not even in the 1970s. Settling out of court for something you didn’t do? Ever worked for a manufacturing company or a city/county? It happens all the time. Sue a public figure with the threat of smearing their reputation, or settle out of court. That’s not an original idea.
There was no semen stained dress to support Juanita Broaddrick 1997 claim of being raped by Clinton in 1978, did you believe her?