The lawyer for one of the women who accusedHerman Cain of sexual harassment said Friday that Mr. Cain engaged in a “series of inappropriate behaviors and unwanted advances” toward his client over two months in the 1990s, and he directly accused Mr. Cain, a Republican presidential candidate, of not telling the truth about his behavior.
The lawyer, Joel P. Bennett, who represents a former employee of Mr. Cain’s at the National Restaurant Association, said the accusations did not center on a single exchange that could be easily misinterpreted, which is how Mr. Cain has characterized it. Mr. Bennett said there were multiple episodes that led his client to file a formal complaint with the restaurant association.
“Mr. Cain knows the specific incidents that were alleged,” Mr. Bennett said during a brief news conference outside his Georgetown office. “My client filed a written complaint in 1999 against him specifically and it had very specific instances in it, and if he chooses not to remember or to acknowledge those, that’s his issue.”
A statement issued by the association on Friday confirmed that a complaint was filed and that Mr. Cain had denied the accusations at the time. The association eventually paid the woman $45,000, which Mr. Cain has called a severance payment. But on Friday, Mr. Bennett, who represented the woman at the time, said the payment was meant as a settlement in response to her accusations.
Mr. Bennett described his client as “anxious” to rebut Mr. Cain’s comments while maintaining her desire not to become “a public figure.” He explained her decision to authorize his statement by saying that she was concerned about Mr. Cain’s public statements and the reports of allegations against him from other women.
After days of insisting that he never committed sexual harassment, Mr. Cain on Friday sought to move past the controversy. At a gathering of conservatives in Washington, he received thunderous applause for his forceful stump speech while his chief of staff declared on television that the campaign would no longer answer questions about the matter.
“We look forward to focusing our attention on the real issues impacting this country — like fixing this broken economy and putting Americans back to work through our ‘9-9-9’ plan, as well as strengthening national security,” said J. D. Gordon, a spokesman for Mr. Cain.
The first scandal of the 2012 campaign has consumed the entire week and distracted the Republican Party from its ultimate goal of defeating President Obama. It has led to finger-pointing and fierce exchanges among the Republican rivals but could prove to be a clarifying moment in the still-unsettled race.
“If you’re sharp enough to make it through this gantlet to the nomination, you’re going to be competitive in November,” said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican minority leader. “I think we’re going to have a really close, hard-fought campaign.”
One early snapshot of public opinion would suggest that Mr. Cain’s candidacy has not been diminished in the eyes of voters. A Washington Post/ABC News poll on Friday found that 7 in 10 Republicans say the allegations do not matter when it comes to selecting a presidential candidate.
The controversy around Mr. Cain, which intensified as the week wore on, is not likely to subside as long as differing accounts keep emerging. In a radio interview Thursday, Mr. Cain said, “How many more ways can I say this stuff is totally fabricated?”
His response to the allegations, first reported on Sunday by Politico, has provided the biggest test yet for an unorthodox campaign and a candidate whose popularity has been rooted in his unconventional style and outsider appeal to voters.
But his denials — he said repeatedly that his only crime had been telling a woman that she was as tall as his wife — have also fueled a sense of outrage among his accusers and their friends that he was using his national platform as a presidential candidate to rewrite history and diminish the seriousness of his actions.
In Washington, Mr. Cain was met with a standing ovation by the crowd at an event hosted by Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group; some in the crowd even danced to his campaign theme song, “I Am America,” by Krista Branch. Mr. Cain once worked as a spokesman and promoter for the group, founded with support from the conservative billionaire industrialists Charles and David H. Koch.
Those ties were outlined in an article in The New York Times on Friday. Referring to that article, Mr. Cain declared: “I am the Koch brothers’ brother from another mother. Yes, I’m their brother from another mother, and proud of it.” As he said so, David Koch, beaming, stood up and pumped his fists in the air.
Mr. Cain’s network of supporters around the country appeared to remain largely behind their candidate.
Maurice Atkinson, a former Republican committeeman from Macon, Ga., who is backing Mr. Cain for the nomination said, “I’m sticking with Herman,” adding: “Herman is a decent guy, rock solid. What you’re seeing is the gutter side of politics and life.”
A co-chairman of his campaign in Florida, State Representative Scott Plakon, said the criticism of how the campaign had handled the accusations was “fair enough.” But, he said, “given the choice of an inspiring candidate with an imperfect campaign apparatus and an uninspiring candidate with a perfect campaign apparatus, I’ll take the first one every time.”
As the week ended, Mr. Cain faced a continued stream of allegations, including new details about a different accuser, who, according to people familiar with the events, has said that he persistently propositioned her during a work event, and that the environment at the restaurant association turned hostile after she complained about it. That woman received a negotiated severance of $35,000 that included a confidentiality clause, people familiar with the agreement said. But it remains an open question how long the spectacle will hang over the presidential race. The candidates gather Wednesday in Michigan for a debate on the economy.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/05/us/politics/cain-accuser-tells-of-harassment-pattern-lawyer-attests.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2
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