A woman identified as Leslie Milwee, a Fort Smith TV news reporter in 1980 when Bill Clinton was governor, has given an extended interview to Breitbart, a right-wing news outlet once headed by Stephen Bannon, the leader of Donald Trump’s campaign, in which she said Clinton sexually assaulted her.
She said she worked for KLMN-TV in Fort Smith (she was then known as Leslie Derrick), a station that went through several permutations before ending news business for a decade. She said she encountered Clinton during the crisis over Cuban refugees at Fort Chaffee, which brought Clinton to Fort Smith and to her station. She said he’d also attempted to meet her at her apartment.
She said he’d groped her intimately on three occasions, once rubbing his genitals against her, though she’d asked him to stop. She didn’t report that to anyone at the time except her grandmother, she said.
The story doesn’t say where Milwee is now, though a web search indicates Houston, where she works with a group that works to fight breast cancer. She’s also on Facebook. (Her “likes” include the Texas Tea Party PAC, Conservative Nation, Western Journalism, Michelle Malkin, National Republican Senatorial Committee, Washington Examiner, Dinesh D’Souza, American Center for Law and Justice, Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, Freedom Works, Right Change, Mark Levin, Conservative Daily, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck.)
Breitbart talked to three friends who said Millwee had told them about the episode in the late 1990s, including one self-identified as a Hillary Clinton supporter. She also referenced Bill Clinton, but much less graphically, in a book she published in 2011, “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up!” In the book she has Clinton touching her only once, on the shoulder, and related, too, taking her mother to a fair to meet Clinton, who was cordial.
The story has popped on right-wing websites and is being picked up elsewhere. It seems likely to gain attention with other topics surrounding tonight’s third presidential debate. Bill Clinton, of course, is not a candidate.
Millwee doesn’t explicitly make accusations against Hillary Clinton though she blames her generally for actions harmful — “slandering” was a word she used — to other women who’ve made accusations against Bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton hasn’t spoken publicly against any of the specific women who’ve been major accusers of her husband.
Millwee said she’d not come forward earlier because of treatment other women had received, but feels more confident now that her children are older.