Huma Abedin: Clinton aide details unwanted kiss by US senator
- Published
Huma Abedin has not named the senator, or his party
A former close aide to Hillary Clinton has written in a new memoir how a US senator attempted to kiss her without her consent.
Huma Abedin said the unnamed politician pounced on her on a couch in the mid-2000s after inviting her into his home, according to the Guardian.
She says she rebuffed him as he made the advance and escaped.
The claim is detailed in her new book, Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds, which is being published next week.
Mrs Clinton, who was the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and secretary of state under President Obama, relied on Ms Abedin as one of her most trusted aides. Mrs Clinton once described her as her "second daughter".
Ms Abedin does not reveal the senator's identity or even his party in describing the incident, which happened while she was working for Mrs Clinton when she was a US senator for New York between 2001-09.
In an interview with CBS, Ms Abedin, now 45, said the senator "kissed me in a very... shocking way".
She was asked by the interviewer whether she felt she had been the victim of a sexual assault.
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"I'm suggesting that I was in an uncomfortable situation with a senator and I didn't know how to deal with it and I buried the whole experience," Ms Abedin said
"In my own personal opinion, no, did I feel like he was assaulting me in that moment? It didn't feel that way.
"It felt like I needed to extricate myself from the situation. And he also spent a lot of time apologising and making sure I was OK and we were actually able to rebalance out relationship."
Ms Abedin started working for Mrs Clinton as an intern
Ms Abedin wrote in her book that after a Washington dinner she walked out with the politician and when they stopped in front of his home he invited her inside for coffee. She accepted.
According to the Guardian, external, which has seen an advance copy of the memoir, Ms Abedin writes: "Then, 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."
Ms Abedin divorced her husband, former Democratic New York congressman Anthony Weiner, over his sex scandals
She adds: "Then I said something only the twentysomething version of me would have come up with - 'I am so sorry' - and walked out, trying to appear as nonchalant as possible."
She also details in the book her anger at her ex-husband, former Democratic New York congressman Anthony Weiner, whose career was destroyed by sex scandals.