Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin reveals she was assaulted by a US Senator | World News - Hindustan Times
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Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin reveals she was assaulted by a US Senator

ByYashwant Raj
Oct 27, 2021 10:42 PM IST

Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin,who is of Indian descent, has revealed in her forthcoming memoir that she was sexually assaulted by an unnamed US Senator.

A longtime aide to former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin, who is of Indian descent, has revealed in her forthcoming memoir that she was sexually assaulted by a US Senator, who has not been identified either by name or party affiliation.

Huma Abedin, a longtime aide of former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, attends The 2021 Met Gala at Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 13 in New York City. (AFP)
Huma Abedin, a longtime aide of former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, attends The 2021 Met Gala at Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 13 in New York City. (AFP)

Abedin has detailed the assault in Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds, set to be published next week, according to The Guardian, which obtained an advanced copy of the book.

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Abedin says the assault occurred at the time when Hilary Clinton was serving in her role as the US Senator from New York between 2001 and 2009.

Abedin recounts that the assault took place after a dinner that she went to with a few senators and their aides. “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,” she writes, as reported by The Guardian. “Once inside, he told me to make myself comfortable on the couch.”

As the senator made coffee, he took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. “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,” Abedin writes.

“I was so utterly shocked, I pushed him away. All I wanted was for the last 10 seconds to be erased.” According to Abedin, the senator seemed surprised by her reaction and apologised, saying he had “misread” her. But then he asked her if she wanted to stay.

“Then I said something only the twenty-something version of me would have come up with – ‘I am so sorry’ – and walked out,” Huma Abedin writes.

After the incident, she avoided the senator a few days. When they met next, he asked if they were still friends. Thankfully, for her, Hillary Clinton walked in at that precise moment “as if she knew I needed rescuing even though I’d told her nothing about that night,” says Abedin.

According to Huma Abedin, she had “buried” the incident, but memories of it came surging back during the confirmation hearings of former president Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court Brett Kavanaugh, who had been accused by a Christine Blasey Ford of assaulting her when they were both in their teens.

Huma Abedin was born in Michigan. Her father Syed Zainul Abedin was born in New Delhi and her mother Saleha Mahmood Abedin was from Pakistan. She grew up in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

She joined the White House as an intern during the presidency of Bill Clinton (1993 to 2001), where she was assigned to the then first lady Hilary Clinton. Abedin went on to become Hillary’s closest aide as she ran for the senate and then the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, which she lost to Barack Obama.

Abedin also served as key aide to Hilary Clinton, when she was the secretary of state between 2009 to 2013, and was also senior figure on Hilary’s second presidential run, which she lost in 2016 to Donald Trump.

Abedin was married Anthony Weiner, a Democratic party operative, who went to serve seven terms as member of the House of Representatives and then saw his career implode over a sexting scandal and with whom she is now estranged.

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