4 women file new sexual assault allegations against Bill Clinton

Former US President Bill Clinton is facing explosive new claims of sexual assault, according to top-level Democratic Party officials and the author of several bestselling books on the 42nd American president.

Edward Klein, former New York Times Magazine editor and the author of numerous bestsellers including his fourth book on the Clintons, Guilty as Sin, in 2016, said on Monday that Clinton is facing four separate lawsuits from women who claim he assaulted them when they were teenagers.

The women are now launching legal proceedings and are asking for cash to keep their silence, claimed Klein, whose latest book is All Out War: The Plot to Destroy Trump. The book was released on October 30, 2017.

A member of the 71-year-old former president’s legal team has confirmed the existence of the claims, which stem from the period after Clinton left the White House in 2001.

The women accused Clinton of assaulting them when they were working in low-level jobs for billionaire investor Ron Burkle. Clinton was hired by Burkle to generate business. It is not clear whether the billionaire was aware of the alleged assaults.

The women will go public with their accusations if the legal negotiations fail, Mail Online reported quoting senior Democratic Party sources.

“Bill is distraught at the thought of having to testify and defend himself against sex charges again,” said a Democratic Party official familiar with the case.

“He hopes his legal team can somehow stop the women from filing charges and drag him through the mud.”

The fresh allegations will revive memories of Clinton’s notorious extramarital affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky while he was still in office, and of previous charges of sexual assault against him. 

Clinton, then 49, and 22-year-old Lewinsky started a sexual relationship in 1995 in the White House, and the affair came to light in 1998.

Lewinsky admitted she had sexual encounters with Clinton on nine occasions, until March 1997 and alleged that First Lady Hillary Clinton was at the White House during many of those incidents.

On January 26, Clinton, standing with his wife, Hillary, spoke at a White House press conference, and issued a false statement that he did not have sexual relations with Lewinsky.

"Now, I have to go back to work on my State of the Union speech. And I worked on it until pretty late last night. But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you," he said. 

Finally, Clinton admitted in a taped testimony in front of grand jury on August 17, 1998, that he had engaged in an "improper physical relationship" with Lewinsky.  On that day, he also admitted in a televised statement that his relationship with Lewinsky was "not appropriate.”  

The Lewinsky scandal led to impeachment of Clinton in the House of Representatives on December 19, 1998. Clinton was acquitted by the Senate in 1999 over his affair with Lewinsky.

Clinton was also sued by Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state employee, back in the late 1990s for sexual harassment. Clinton reportedly paid $850,000 to settle the lawsuit by Jones.

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