It has emerged that leading donors to Harry Clinton’s campaign during the 2016 US presidential election sponsored a plot to coax women willing to accuse then challenger Donald Trump of sexual assault to come forward.
The unsuccessful plot would have seen the women make hundreds of thousands of dollars to soil Trump’s reputation before the election.
According to a New York Times report published on New Year’s Eve, Susie Thompkins Buell, the founder of Esprit Clothing and one of Clinton’s wealthiest backers, paid $500,000 to celebrity lawyer Lisa Bloom to get women willing to come forward against Trump to step forward. David Brock, a former Clinton opponent-turned-supporter, also gave $200,000 to the effort through a non-profit group.
The report said it got information for the story from two members of Clinton’s Democratic Party who were familiar with the financial arrangement.
Bloom tried to convince women to speak up by presenting herself as a humanitarian who had come to help them seek closure.
The plot tried to coax women to come forward to testify against Trump with a promise of funds for security, relocation, and possibly a “safe house” provided by wealthy donors.
However, the plot failed, with Bloom citing an instance where a woman demanded $2 million and still refused to come forward afterwards. Thereafter, no other woman came forward.
She said further that she refunded most of the money, and kept only some of the funds she received for out-of-pocket expenses accrued during her efforts to build cases against Trump.
However, she said neither Clinton nor her campaign was aware of the whole arrangement, and denied insinuations by New York Times that she tried to cajole the women to come forward with accusations.
She said, “It doesn’t cost anything to publicly air allegations.
“Security and relocation are expensive and were sorely needed in a case of this magnitude, in a country filled with so much anger, hate and violence.”
She further said that she only worked with women whose story she was able to confirm and prove.
Bloom represented disgraced Hollywood heavyweight, Harvey Weinstein when allegations of sexual misconduct against him by many women surfaced in October.
Buell and Brock refused to comment on the story.