Hillary Clinton’s former aide Huma Abedin has reportedly written in a new memoir how she was sexually assaulted by a US senator.
According to the Guardian, Huma Abedin said the unnamed politician pounced on her on a couch in the mid-2000s after inviting her into his home.
Huma Abedin says she rebuffed him as he tried to kiss her and escaped.
The claim is detailed in her new book, Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds, which is being published next week.
Huma Abedin was one of 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and former Obama-era secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s most trusted aides, and was once described by her as her “second daughter”.
She describes the assault while recounting her work for Hillary Clinton when she was a senator for New York between 2001and 2009.
Huma Abedin, now 45, does not reveal the senator’s identity or even his party.
She says 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, which has seen an advance copy of the memoir, Huma 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.”
Huma Abedin says the senator apologized and said he had “misread” her, before asking if she wanted to stay.
She writes: “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 says she bumped into the senator a few days later on Capitol Hill, and he asked if they were still friends.
Huma Abedin 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.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign team has condemned the FBI’s decision to brief lawmakers on a new inquiry into the Democratic candidate’s email use.
On October 28, FBI Director James Comey informed Congress of the move in a letter, 11 days before the election.
Hillary Clinton told supporters the move was “unprecedented” and “deeply troubling”.
However, Donald Trump has praised the FBI’s decision.
In his letter to Congress, James Comey said the FBI had learned of fresh emails which might be “pertinent” to its previous inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server when she was secretary of state in the Obama administration.
James Comey has defended the move, insisting that not making it public would be “misleading” and also risked being “misunderstood”, given that the FBI does not know the significance of the newly found emails.
Speaking to supporters in Florida on October 29, Hillary Clinton said: “It’s not just strange, it’s unprecedented. And it is deeply troubling because voters deserve to get full and complete facts.
“So we’ve called on Director Comey to explain everything right away, put it all out on the table.”
Hillary Clinton has said she is confident the investigation into the emails will not change the FBI’s original finding in July, which criticized her but cleared her of any illegal acts.
James Comey has been heavily criticized by Clinton supporters – and according to the New York Times, justice department officials – for his decision to make the information public so close to polling day.
In a memo, James Comey acknowledged “we do not ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations”. But he said he felt an “obligation” to do so given that he had previously testified that the FBI investigation was complete.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta said the information provided by James Comey was “long on innuendo” and “short on facts”.
There was, he said, “no evidence of wrongdoing. No charge of wrongdoing. No indication this is even about Hillary”.
Donald Trump meanwhile has said the issue is the biggest political scandal in the US since Watergate, which brought down President Richard Nixon.
At a rally in Colorado on October 29, the Republican candidate said: “Her criminal action was willful, deliberate, intentional and purposeful.
“Hillary set up an illegal server for the obvious purpose of shielding her illegal actions from public disclosure and exposure.”
The FBI has already established that Hillary Clinton had held classified information on a private email server.
In July, James Comey said Hillary Clinton’s handling of sensitive material during her tenure as secretary of state was “extremely careless”, but cleared her of any criminal wrongdoing.
The latest emails were discovered as part of a separate investigation into the estranged husband of top Clinton aide, Huma Abedin.
Devices belonging to Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner, a former high-flying congressman, were seized in an investigation into whether he sent explicit emails to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina.
Investigators are reviewing the documents to see if they contain classified information.
Hillary Clinton’s private email server was first revealed in March 2015 by the New York Times.
She did not immediately express regret, and said the main reason for her “[email protected]” address was “convenience”.
Soon after that Hillary Clinton apologized in an interview with ABC News, and has since said sorry to voters a number of times.
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton says she is “confident” a new FBI probe linked to her emails will not change its original finding that she should not be prosecuted.
She called on the FBI director to explain the new inquiry to the American people.
James Comey earlier said the FBI was looking into newly found messages.
The latest emails came to light during a separate inquiry into top Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s estranged husband, former congressman Anthony Weiner.
Devices belonging to Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner were seized in an investigation into whether he sent explicit emails to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina.
Hillary Clinton said: “The American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately.
“It’s imperative that the bureau explain this issue in question, whatever it is, without any delay.”
She highlighted that James Comey had said he did not know the significance of the new emails, adding: “I’m confident (that) whatever they are will not change the conclusion reached in July.”
Donald Trump, however, described the FBI investigation as “the biggest political scandal since Watergate”, referring to the 1970s scandal that engulfed Republican President Richard Nixon.
“It’s everybody’s hope that justice at last can be delivered,” the Republican candidate told supporters at a rally in Iowa.
“The FBI would never have reopened this case at this time unless it were a most egregious criminal offence.”
James Comey said the FBI would investigate if the newly discovered emails contain classified information.
The FBI chief said in a letter to Congress that investigators had discovered the emails “in connection with an unrelated case… that appear to be pertinent to the investigation”.
James Comey said he “cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant, and I cannot predict how long it will take us to complete this additional work”.
The FBI has already established Hillary Clinton had classified information on a private email server.
In July, James Comey said Hillary Clinton’s handling of sensitive material during her 2009-2013 tenure as secretary of state was “extremely careless”, but cleared her of any criminal wrongdoing.
The revelation that Hillary Clinton handled sensitive information while breaking federal rules by running her own email server out of her upstate New York home has dogged her campaign since last year.
Her campaign chairman John Podesta criticised the FBI’s “extraordinary” timing.
The revelation comes just 11 days before Americans go to the polls in the presidential election.
Hillary Clinton is five points ahead of Donald Trump, according to a Real Clear Politics average.
Sydney Leathers, the alleged virtual mistress of New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, gave her first interview with CBS’sInside Edition.
In the interview Sydney Leathers, 23, cried as she apologized to Anthony Weiner’s wife Huma Abedin “for the pain she probably feels” but says she thought the political power couple had “more of an arrangement, or a business relationship, than a marriage”.
Sydney Leathers hypothesizes that Huma Abedin’s own ambitions may have played a role in her staying with the mayoral candidate after his texting scandal in 2011.
“I do think that was probably part of it, for the power, for the fame, for the stature,” Sydney Leathers said.
The renewed discussion about Anthony Weiner’s recent indiscretions was prompted by Sydney Leather’s decision to release screen grabs of their conversations to gossip site The Dirty as well as pictures of the mayoral candidate, all of which were exchanged more than one year after he resigned from Congress.
Sydney Leathers first contacted Anthony Weiner in her role as a political blogger, right after the previous texting scandal, to lambast him for his actions.
Anthony Weiner never responded to the message, and it wasn’t until a year later that they finally contacted, “poking” each other on a social networking site.
From there, their relationship turned dirty, escalating to phone s** sessions twice a week from June to November 2012.
Sydney Leathers called the affair “dark and dirty” and that new-father Anthony Weiner was using their online trysts as a way of “acting out”.
But she also said that they truly loved each other, and that Anthony Weiner even offered to buy the Indiana-based Sydney Leathers an apartment in Chicago so they could spend time together when he was in town.
“I’ve found the perfect woman. Gorgeous, s**y and like a bit crazy,” Anthony Weiner wrote in one exchange.
“I think it was a fantasy thing for both of us,” she said.
Anthony Weiner’s online mistress Sydney Leathers gave her first interview with CBS’s Inside Edition
Anthony Weiner even got jealous of her other online relationships.
“Me being hit on by other men really upset him,” Sydney Leathers said.
“We were Facebook friends, so he could see if men were commenting on photos of me, or telling me that I was pretty.
“Really minor things like that really bothered him.”
Their relationship took a turn for the worse in the lead up to the New York City mayoral race, when Anthony Weiner contacted Sydney Leathers and asked her delete their conversations.
“Do me a solid,” Anthony Weiner texted Sydney Leathers four months ago.
“Can you hard delete all our chats here.”
“Obviously I knew that he wanted me to erase any evidence of out conversations,” Sydney Leathers said.
“Because that was around the time I knew that he was going to run for mayor.”
For Sydney Leathers, things turned scary when a man claiming to be Anthony Weiner’s “brother” contacted her “to see if she was going to be a problem”.
Anthony Weiner’s brother Jason denies any contact with Sydney Leathers, but a Facebook message from Weiner to Leathers asks her if they’re “ok” after a conversation with his brother.
“My brother e-mailed me asking about you and whether I pissed you off. he told me to look at your feed, but nothing seems about me. maybe he was just tallying up pro and con comments and took one of your pithy posts as being something bad about me,” Anthony Weiner wrote.
In the interview, Sydney Leathers said she had initially been attracted to Anthony Weiner because of his politics, but had since seen another side to him.
“He’s not who I thought he was,” she said.
When asked what she would like to say to him now, Sydney Leathers responded: “Stop lying, stop embarrassing his wife, and get help.”
Sydney Leathers was spotted out on Thursday for the first time since disclosing the mayoral candidates indiscretions. She wore an eye-catching blue dress and towering wedge heels as she grabbed coffee in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Laughing as she chatted on the phone and visited Starbucks, she seemed unfazed by the political storm created by her revelations of her six-month virtual affair with the married politician.
The Inside Edition interview came as her high school friends described her as someone who was always desperate for fame just as it emerged she had got herself an agent and was hoping to make $100,000 by selling her story.
Sydney Leathers hoped Anthony Weiner would be her ticket out of “Conservative Hell” Indiana and alleges he promised to put her up in a condo in Chicago and a possible job at Politico, they said.
She lives with her machinist father in Princeton and had a difficult relationship with her thrice-married mother since they split six years ago.
Since the revelations, Anthony Weiner has admitted that he started three different virtual relationships with women after he resigned from Congress following his Twitter texting scandal in 2011.
And earlier this week, Anthony Weiner and his wife Huma Abedin held a joint press conference declaring their dedication to both one another and the campaign.
Afterwards, Anthony Weiner sent an email to supporters saying that the bid for New York City’s mayor was “too important” to give up over “embarrassing personal things”.
Rivals, newspaper editorial pages and former New York congressional colleagues urged Democrat Anthony Weiner to quit after he acknowledged exchanging raunchy messages and photos online after he had resigned from Congress for similar behavior.
Anthony Weiner’s strongest rivals in the polls, Christine Quinn and Bill Thompson, criticized him but didn’t directly call on him to quit.
Anthony Weiner’s online mistress Sydney Leathers, the political wannabe at the center of the mayoral candidate’s latest texting scandal, pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana and appeared before Vanderburgh Superior Court, Indiana, in 2008.
Sydney Leathers, 23, had dropped out of Mt Carmel High School without graduating the previous summer.
And until just three months ago, Sydney Leathers was being pursued through the small claims court for close to $2,000 in unpaid medical fees in a case that lasted two years.
In an interview with Inside Edition, Sydney Leathers revealed Anthony Weiner told her he loved her and claims he even consulted her before deciding to run for mayor.
Sydney Leathers revealed Anthony Weiner told her he loved her and claims he even consulted her before deciding to run for mayor
“You told Anthony Weiner that you loved him?” Sydney Leathers was asked, according to a statement from Inside Edition.
“Yes,” she said.
“Did he tell you he loved you?”
“Yes,” she replied, adding that she was embarrassed by the whole thing.
“I feel embarrassed. I wish I could go back and change it but I know that I can’t so I just have to live with it. It’s embarrassing but it was how I felt at the time, and how he felt at the time,” Sydney Leathers said.
Sydney Leathers also started crying as she apologized for the hurt she has caused to Anthony Weiner’s wife Huma Abedin.
The revelation came as high school friends of Sydney Leathers described her as someone who was always desperate for fame just as it emerged she had got herself an agent and was hoping to make $100,000 by selling her story.
Sydney Leathers hoped Anthony Weiner would be her ticket out of “Conservative Hell” Indiana and alleges he promised to put her up in a condo in Chicago and a possible job at Politico.
She lives with her machinist father in Princeton and had a difficult relationship with her thrice-married mother since they split six years ago, it also emerged today.
Sydney Leathers’ mother Laura only learned about her daughter’s involvement with Anthony Weiner when the story broke nationally and are said to be still trying to absorb the shock.
On Wednesday, Laura Leathers blasted Anthony Weiner and his run for office.
“I have nothing to say except God help New York if he gets to be mayor. You can print that,” she told the New York Daily News.
It also emerged yesterday that Anthony Weiner and Sydney Leathers’ online relationship started when she emailed him in 2011.
Anthony Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, was aware of her husband’s most recent indiscretions months before he decided to run for New York City mayor, her friends have revealed.
When 23-year-old Sydney Leathers released messages on Tuesday that showed Anthony Weiner continued his inappropriate online relationships well beyond his 2011 resignation from Congress, all eyes were turned to Huma Abedin to see if she knew.
Huma Abedin stood by her man – though looking nervous and uncomfortable while doing so – and declared that she was aware of his behavior and they decided a mayoral run was right for the family.
Her friends have now spoken out saying that she was devastated when she originally learned about his relapse but she has had months to come to terms with the news.
“When she found out, she was furious. She was furious, and she thought long and hard about leaving, and ultimately decided what was best for her and her son and her family was to continue to try to work through it,” unidentified friends told The Wall Street Journal.
They added that it was her decision to attend and speak at the press conference on Tuesday, and Huma Abedin did not make that choice under any pressure from her husband or his campaign.
Huma Abedin has taken a number of tactical steps during the campaign, as she made a conscious choice to speak to People Magazine alongside Anthony Weiner and their son Jordan in June 2012.
She also has been on the campaign trail with Anthony Weiner, appearing in his official launch video and attending events at his side.
An essay Huma Abedin wrote about their difficult journey over the past two years is scheduled to appear in next month’s issue of Harper’s Bazaar, timed so that the publication coincides with the Democratic primary on September 10.
Huma Abedin herself marked the biggest difference between Anthony Weiner’s two devastating press conferences – the first when he resigned in 2011 following the accidental release of a photo on his Twitter account, and then the press conference on Tuesday.
In 2011, a then-pregnant Huma Abedin was lauded for choosing not to stand next to her disgraced, weepy husband though he said that they decided to work on their marriage.
Anthony Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, was aware of her husband’s most recent indiscretions months before he decided to run for New York City mayor
But now, following her press conference debut, immediate comparisons were drawn between she and Silda Spitzer, who served as the inspiration for CBS’s hit show The Good Wife following her decision to stand next to the former Governor when he admitted to using prostitutes.
“She’s not the <<good wife>>. If she had found out yesterday she wouldn’t have been standing there,” her friends told the Wall Street Journal.
“She knew it was going to be a long and tough time, and she knew he hadn’t hit rock bottom.”
In her statement on Tuesday, Huma Abedin was clear to mention that they have gone through “a whole lot of therapy” to get to the point where they are now, and other friends believe she sees his relapse as part of the healing process.
“She’s not fine and she’s not in good spirits. No one‘s fine when they go through this. But the emotional part of this was last fall,” and unidentified confidante told The New York Daily News.
“I assume [she stayed] because he was trying to beat this, and knew that’s part of the process.”
Aside from her appearance at Tuesday’s press conference, Huma Abedin has reverted to her low-profile ways, holing up in the couple’s Manhattan apartment on Wednesday with a brief escape when she went into an awaiting car.
No official statements or plans have been released but insiders expect Huma Abedin will keep a lower profile moving forward in the campaign.
Huma Abedin’s decision to stay with Anthony Weiner after the first revelations in 2011 was largely accepted by the public, under the assumption that he stopped communicating other woman and focusing on their marriage.
“I tell my friends things that Anthony does and they’re always like, <<Really? He does that?! My husband doesn’t do that>>. I mean, I have not washed a single piece of clothing ever. Anthony does all our laundry. I have not been to our dry cleaner. He does that. He makes my tea when I get up in the morning. He’s just a loving, caring, thoughtful spouse and partner,” she told People in late June 2012.
Now his messages with Sydney Leather prove that he struck up a new virtual romance less than two weeks later.
“I have no way of knowing whether Huma, for whom I have great respect, is responding out of new motherhood, the Stockholm syndrome or a mystery,” women’s rights activist Gloria Steinem told The New York Times.
A number of commentators have linked her behavior – or her “Post Scandal Playbook” – come straight from the pages of her mentor and longtime boss Hillary Clinton. Huma Abedin is the former Secretary of States’ top aide and has worked with her since 1996 when she was First Lady.
Though the Clintons have said from the beginning of the mayoral race that they will not be endorsing any candidate – citing their close ties to many from when Hillary Clinton was the Senator of New York – Huma Abedin has used her connections to help bring in big money donors for her husband.
“Her loyalty is to Hillary Clinton and her role model is Hillary Clinton. Doormats. Doormats with the promise of a payoff later down the road,” conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said.
The criticism is not only coming from the right, though the Democrats are tending to focus on Anthony Weiner rather than Huma Abedin.
Minority leader Nancy Pelosi, who was one of the most vocal voices calling for Anthony Weiner’s resignation in 2011, today told NBC’s Luke Russert that his recent conduct is “reprehensible, disrespectful of women”.
Congressman Charles Rangel, who has been the Democratic representative for Harlem for over 40 years, echoed those sentiments on MSNBC Wednesday morning.
“Nobody that I know understands at all what Anthony Weiner was thinking about. And right now, I think you would agree that we all are concerned about his wife. She’s a brave lady,” Congressman Rangel told MSNBC on Wednesday.
“I have seen a lot of things like this in politics where males have to lean on their wives for support, but I don’t ever recall seeing a wife looking and feeling so sad and embarrassed, because Huma is a very private person, a very delicate, sophisticated person. And all the years that I’ve known her, putting her into this political situation, as bright and as intelligent as she is, is very awkward.”
Anthony Weiner, the Democrat New York mayoral candidate, has admitted sending messages to a woman, two years after he left Congress over a similar affair.
An unnamed woman told website The Dirty she had an online relationship with Anthony Weiner last year.
Anthony Weiner, 48, who has been leading polls of Democratic mayoral candidates, said he was “very sorry”.
In 2011, Anthony Weiner said his Twitter account was hacked, but then admitted sending photos to young women.
Flanked by his wife, Huma Abedin, at a press conference on Tuesday in New York, Anthony Weiner apologized while reading from a prepared statement.
He also said he would not drop out of the city’s mayoral race, which will be decided by voters in November. Three of his rivals immediately called on him to stand aside.
Anthony Weiner told reporters: “This behavior is behind me. I’ve apologized to my wife, Huma, and I’m grateful that she has worked through these issues with me and that I’ve had her forgiveness.
“I want to again say how very sorry I am to anyone who was on the receiving end of these messages and the disruption that this has caused.”
He said some of the latest reports were inaccurate, but refused to go into detail.
Anthony Weiner has admitted sending messages to a woman, two years after he left Congress over a similar affair
Huma Abedin then took to the podium and said: “Our marriage, like many others, has had its ups and its downs. It took a lot of work and a whole lot of therapy to get to a place where I could forgive Anthony.”
She continued: “Anthony’s made some horrible mistakes, both before he resigned from Congress and after. But I do very strongly believe that it’s between us and our marriage.”
“I love him, I have forgiven him, I believe in him,” she added.
Briefly taking questions after the statements, Anthony Weiner admitted that some of the online activity in question had taken place as late as summer last year.
The woman at the centre of the latest allegations has said they began exchanging messages in July 2012 and continued for six months.
She said she was 22 years old when they made contact on the social networking website Formspring.
The woman claimed Anthony Weiner had used the alias “Carlos Danger” for their exchanges.
“I was young and dumb,”The Dirty quoted her as saying.
“I just want people to really know he’s lying when he acts like he has changed.”
Anthony Weiner has previously said he should not have denied posting photos on Twitter in 2011.
He said he only did so because he wanted to keep the truth from his then-pregnant wife, who is a former adviser to Hillary Clinton.
She gave birth to the couple’s son, Jordan, later that year.
Anthony Weiner will find out how damaging his latest conduct has been in September’s primary elections, when Democratic voters decide if he or one of his rivals should represent their party in the mayoral race.
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