Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [79]
The governor said, “I’m Bill Clinton.” Jones stated that she replied, “‘I’m Paula Corbin’ or whatever.”
She began engaging in chitchat, volunteering that she was a new employee for AIDC, which caused the governor to perk up. He drawled that Dave Herrington—her boss—was a good friend. In fact, said Clinton, he had “appointed [Dave] to that job.” They ended up standing near the window, where there was “a pretty view up there, because it was really high up.” Here, the governor allegedly made his first pass at Paula Corbin. In her words, as they were “talking about the job or whatever,” Clinton suddenly began “pulling me over like he has done this a million times and grabs me and pulls me over to him to the windowsill and tries to kiss me and just didn’t ask me or nothing.
“I was just really shocked. And I pulled away.… I said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘What are you doing?’”
Jones would later testify that she was scared because she knew there was “a state trooper sitting outside the door with a gun.” It was disputed, however, whether Trooper Ferguson was anywhere nearby.
What followed, according to her account, was something akin to a game of musical chairs with a raunchy twist. Paula moved to another seat and tried to “ignore what he had just done,” attempting to change the subject. “And I was talking to him about Hillary,” Jones recalled. She complimented the governor about Hillary’s work with kids’ causes, and “on how she was really good with children.” At this point, she said, Clinton made his second pass at her.
Jones would testify: “He come [sic] over by the wingback chair close to where I was at. Then it’s like he wasn’t even paying attention to what I was saying to him. Then he goes, ‘Oh, I love the way your hair flows down your back.’” In other recountings of the story, Jones added that Governor Clinton commented, “I love your curves.”
Jones would insist that she attempted to steer the eager governor back to idle chitchat. This was unsuccessful. Instead, “Governor Clinton pulled me over to him while he was leaning up against the wingback chair and he took his hands and was running them up my culottes.” Jones testified that Clinton started “kissing me on the neck, you know, and trying to kiss me on the lips and I wouldn’t let him. And then I backed up. I said, ‘Stop it. You know. I’m not this kind of girl.’” Next, Jones said, she ran over to the couch. “I thought, What am I going to do? I was trying to collect my thoughts.”
It was here on the couch, after more small talk about Hillary’s work with needy children, that Clinton made his ultimate advance. According to Jones’s sworn testimony, Governor Clinton “come over there, pulled his pants down, sat down and …” She would add editorial comment: “I can see the look on his face right now. He asked me, ‘Would you kiss it for me?’” Jones would add, “I mean, it was disgusting.”
Jones would insist that she didn’t miss a beat in replying: “No. I’m not that kind of girl.” At that point, she jumped up and told the governor, “I’m going to get in trouble. I’ve got to be going. I’ve got to get back to my registration desk.” Clinton allegedly replied, “Well, I don’t want to make you do anything you don’t want to do.”
As she hustled toward the door, Jones said, it was obvious that Governor Clinton was “embarrassed” that things had not gone as planned. Jones would testify that Clinton looked flushed “because I had rejected him.” She went on: “And he was pulling up his pants. And he said, ‘Well. If you have any trouble, you have Dave Herrington call me immediately.’”
In Jones’s version of events, as she made a beeline out the door, she observed Trooper Ferguson waiting directly outside the suite. “I said nothing to him