Much has been made of Hillary Clinton working as the court-appointed defense attorney for confessed child rapist Thomas Alfred Taylor in 1975, especially in the past week when Donald Trump used the case to counter the “grab them by the pussy” tape. In large part, the narrative is built around what Clinton (then using her maiden name of Hillary Rodham professionally) said in an affidavit supporting her motion requesting a psychiatric examination of victim Kathy Shelton. The affidavit, originally dug up by the Washington Free Beacon, is available online on page 34 of a 42 page file that includes other motions in the case. LawNewz has made the existing version searchable for easier reading.
Here’s the most relevant portion of the affidavit (note that Shelton, who has come forward in the last few years as the victim in the case, has her name redacted in the documents):
3. I have made an Investigation of the facts and circumstances In this ease and verily believe that a psychiatric examination of the complainant, [redacted], is necessary and vital In this case.
4. I have been Informed that the complainant la emotionally unstable with a tendency to seek out older men and to engage in fantasizing. I have also been informed that she has In the past made false accusations about persona, claiming they had attacked her body. Also that she exhibits an unusual stubbornness and temper when she does not get her way.
5. I have also been told by an expert In child psychology that children In early adolescence tend to exaggerate or romanticize sexual experiences and that adolescents with disorganized families, such as the complainant’s, are even more prone to such behavior.
The primary concerns raised about Clinton’s statements have been about both the general concept and where she sourced the claims about Shelton that she cites in the affidavit. The former is something that, when doing a feature on Shelton in August, Daily Mail contributor Alana Goodman wrote “would likely be prohibited today under Arkansas rape shield act,” but the law had not been passed yet. In 2007, when a Newsday reporter showed the affidavit to Shelton, she refuted all of Clinton’s claims about her, saying that ” “It kind of shocks me — it’s not true. I never said anybody attacked my body before, never in my life.”
The basis for Clinton’s more specific claims about Shelton is far more cloudy, and it may be why the judge denied it, something first reported by the Washington Post on Tuesday when the handwritten docket from the case surfaced. Shelton had implied to Goodman in the Daily Mail interview that the request for the exam was granted, and outright said it did on her GoFundMe page. That doesn’t change the fact that nobody has been able to get to the bottom of where Clinton heard what she claimed under penalty of perjury.
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