Huma Abedin Reportedly Details Sexual Misconduct By Sitting U.S. Senator In New Memoir

High-profile political staffer Huma Abedin has revealed in a soon-to-be-released memoir that while working for then-Senator Hillary Clinton she was the victim of sexual misconduct by a sitting senator, The Guardian reported this week. 

Abedin, who was the traveling chief of staff and former assistant to Clinton during her 2008 presidential campaign and the vice-chair of her failed 2016 bid, writes that it was the confirmation process for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 that triggered her memory of the incident, according to The Guardian, which obtained an advance copy of her forthcoming memoir, “Both/And: A Life in Many Words.” The 45-year-old does not name the senator involved in the assault, nor does she give an exact time or other revealing details surrounding the incident, the outlet reported; the section regarding the assault comes just after a passage about Donald and Melania Trump’s 2005 wedding.

Abedin reportedly writes that the incident occurred after a dinner in Washington, D.C. that was attended by several senators and their aides; Clinton was not in attendance, she wrote, according to the outlet. 

“I ended up walking out with one of the senators, and soon we stopped in front of his building and he invited me in for coffee. Once inside, he told me to make myself comfortable on the couch,” Abedin reportedly wrote. “Then, in an instant, it all changed. He plopped down to my right, put his left arm around my shoulder, and kissed me, pushing his tongue into my mouth, pressing me back on the sofa.

“I was so utterly shocked, I pushed him away. All I wanted was for the last 10 seconds to be erased,” Abedin reportedly wrote.

Abedin then detailed the unnamed senator’s apparent surprised and apologetic reaction, writing that he told her that he’d “misread” Abedin's feelings towards him “all this time” — then, as she tried to maneuver out of the situation without it “ending badly," she says he asked her to stay.  

“Then I said something only the twentysomething version of me would have come up with — ‘I am so sorry’ — and walked out, trying to appear as nonchalant as possible,” she wrote. 

In recalling the incident, Abedin said she “felt I was at an Arab wedding back home.” 

While she was born in Michigan, the political insider spent much of her youth in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. At 18, Abedin moved to Washington, D.C. to attend George Washington University and was assigned to then-First Lady Clinton as a White House intern. She went on to become the former secretary of state’s “body woman” and a trusted advisor, particularly around issues involving the Middle East. Clinton has publicly likened her to a second daughter. 

Abedin’s name was dragged through the press in 2011 when her husband, then-Congressman Anthony Weiner, became embroiled in a scandal after he was caught, then admitted to, sending explicit photos to several women via Twitter. After the scandal played out across the media, Weiner eventually resigned from Congress; Abedin remained married to him but filed for divorce in May 2017 after he pleaded guilty to a new, unrelated sexting charge. They have a 9-year-old son together. 

“Both/And: A Life in Many Words” is scheduled for release by Simon & Schuster on Nov. 2.