Woman Says She Was Groped By SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas

A woman has come forward to say she was groped by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas at a 1999 dinner party for the Truman Foundation in Falls Church, Virginia.

Moira Smith had made the allegation in a Facebook post and told her story more extensively in an article published Thursday by the National Law Journal. The Journal corroborated her account through interviews with three of her friends and her former husband.

Smith made the initial Facebook post on the night of Oct. 7, just after the Washington Post posted audio of Donald Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women.

“I have an eight-year-old daughter," Smith told the Journal. "Before last weekend, I had subconsciously convinced myself she would never go through this and now I know she almost certainly will. I am responsible to help minimize the risks and help her to understand what to do if she does, and to model the behavior that it’s not OK. It has changed my worldview as a mother.”

Smith won a scholarship from the prestigious Harry S. Truman Foundation in 1997 and was attending a foundation dinner in 1999 when she met Thomas.

"He groped me while I was setting the table, suggesting I should sit ‘right next to him,'" Smith said of Thomas in her Facebook post.

Through a Supreme Court spokesperson, Thomas denied the allegations in a statement to several news outlets. "This claim is preposterous and it never happened," the statement said.

The Journal said it spoke with three of Smith's friends who said they remember her talking about the encounter. And Smith's former husband, also a Truman scholar, said he “definitely remembered” her talking about it.

When Thomas was nominated to the court by George H. W. Bush in 1991, he faced allegations of sexual harassment by Anita Hill. Hill said that while Thomas was her boss at the U.S. Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, he made lewd comments about his sex life and sexual fantasies.

Thomas denied the allegations and refused to take a polygraph test. He was confirmed to the court by a 52–48 vote in the Senate, the narrowest margin for a Supreme Court justice confirmation since the 19th century.

Since the release of Trump's audio tape, several women have come forward to say the GOP nominee touched, grabbed or kissed them without consent, allegations that Trump has strongly denied.

Read the full story from the National Law Journal here.