"Catch and Kill" author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow levelled a broadside at former President Bill Clinton on Friday night, saying he had been "credibly accused of rape” and his alleged victim Juanita Broaddrick's claim was "overdue for revisiting," reported Fox News.
As a panel discussion on "Real Time with Bill Maher" focused among other news stories on the resignation of California congresswoman Katie Hill in the wake of allegations of inappropriate affairs, the host posed a hypothetical about Bill Clinton in connection with the Monica Lewinsky affair and other matters:
"Could Bill Clinton, if he had done what he did in 1998, survive today - or would his own party have thrown him under the bus?" Maher asked.
Later in the discussion Farrow returned to the question, as he emphasised that allegations made against Bill Clinton were a "different" situation.
"I think that it is very important to interject that Bill Clinton is a different conversation," Farrow told Maher.
"He has been credibly accused of rape. That has nothing to do with gray areas. I think that the Juanita Broaddrick claim has been overdue for revisiting."
Farrow, whose investigation for the New Yorker into allegations against the disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein won him a Pulitzer prize in 2018, added that in his opinion Clinton wouldn't have escaped scrutiny if he were president in today’s political climate, as society's views on sexual misconduct have "changed."
The impeachment of Bill Clinton was initiated on 8 October, 1998, with the specific charges against the president amounting to lying under oath and obstruction of justice, stemming from a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Clinton by former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones.
White House intern Monica Lewinsky's name surfaced during the discovery phase of Jones' case, when lawyers sought to show a pattern of behavior by Clinton that involved inappropriate sexual relationships with other government employees.
In the Jones case, Monica Lewinsky had submitted an affidavit that denied any physical relationship with Clinton.
Lewinsky subsequently stated that she had nine sexual encounters in the Oval Office with President Bill Clinton between November 1995 and March 1997.
Another person of interest, American former nursing home administrator Juanita Broaddrick was subpoenaed in the Jones suit and submitted an affidavit denying that Clinton had made "any sexual advances”.
In 1999, however, the woman alleged that US President Bill Clinton raped her in April 1978 when he was the Attorney General of Arkansas.
Clinton's attorney, David Kendall, denied the allegations on his client's behalf, and Clinton declined to comment further on the issue.
In 1999, Broaddrick sued Clinton, seeking documents that might be relevant to her allegations, but a judge dismissed her lawsuit in 2001.
The Senate acquitted Bill Clinton in February 1999 and he went on to complete his second term in January 2001.