Huma Abedin has claimed in her new memoir that she was once sexually assaulted by an US senator and was traumatized and shaken that he ended up apologizing to her. Abedin doesn't name the politician in her upcoming tome 'Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds' but mentions that she was working as an aide to then-Sen. Hillary Clinton more than a decade back, according to the Guardian.
The longtime Clinton aide and estranged wife of former congressman and convicted sex offender Anthony Weiner said that the memory still haunts her. Abedin was one of 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and was once described by Clinton as her "second daughter".
Shocking Experience
Abedin in her new memoir, which releases next week, says that assault happened after a Washington dinner which was being attended by "a few senators and their aides." It was sometime after Donald Trump's wedding to Melania in 2005 and before she was with Weiner. The two married in July 2010.
Abedin mentions that Clinton was not there at the dinner. "I ended up walking out with one of the senators, and soon we stopped in front of his building and he invited me in for coffee. Once inside, he told me to make myself comfortable on the couch."
The senator then took off his blazer and rolled up his sleeves as he made coffee and chatted with her, she 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."
Keeping Silent for Years
After that the senator apologized and told Abedin that he had "misread" her. However, Abedin tried not to blow up the incident and plotted how to leave "without this ending badly," as the senator asked her if she wanted to stay.
"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," Abedin writes.
Abedin, now 45, said that for a few days she tried to keep her distance from the senator but soon ran into him on Capitol Hill. However, she continued to maintain friendly relationship with the unnamed senator.
Abedin said that for years she tried to keep the horrifying incident out of her mind until allegations of attempted sexual assault emerged against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in the fall of 2018.
However, she has finally decided to share the horrifying incident with the world in her memoir. In addition to serving as Clinton's aide in the Senate, Abedin went on to become her deputy chief of staff when the former First Lady spent four years as secretary of state under President Obama. Abedin was also vice chairwoman of Clinton's doomed 2016 presidential campaign.
That said, Abedin's estranged husband has had his own repeated sex scandals, one of which involved sexting with a 15-year-old girl that led to his arrest in 2016. Weiner, 56, served 18 months in federal prison for the offense, and he and Abedin separated that same year after the offense.
