Huma Abedin Says She Was Sexually Assaulted by a Senator

In her upcoming memoir, out next Tuesday, Huma Abedin says she was sexually assaulted by an unnamed senator in an incident she "entirely" scrubbed from her mind until Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court in 2018 triggered her to recall it. After a Washington dinner during the time Abedin was working for then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, Abedin writes that she left with the senator, who invited her inside for coffee when they got to his building. Clinton had not been in attendance at the dinner, reports the Guardian, which got an advance look at the book.

They continued to talk as he made coffee, but as she sat on the couch, she writes, "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." She pushed him away, apologized, and left; he, too, apologized, she writes, saying that he had "misread" her. She remained friendly with him and repressed the incident, until Christine Blasey Ford was accused of "conveniently remembering" her alleged sexual assault at the hands of Kavanaugh. The accusation, Abedin writes, triggered her own recollection. See the Guardian for more. (The memoir also includes an inside look at the Anthony Weiner scandal.)