Anita Hill is speaking out about a new groping allegation against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, telling The National Law Journal Thursday that a lawyer’s account of him grabbing her behind when she was a young legal scholar should be investigated thoroughly and fairly.
Hill, who testified during Thomas’ Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 1991 that he sexually harassed her, told the publication that she believes Moira Smith’s allegation should be taken seriously and that there should be a “fair investigation … by an appropriate body.”
Hill said suggestions that Smith only came forward to gain notoriety are unfounded, since Smith has people who can confirm her story.
“To say that something like this is coming for political gains—and of course that was an allegation that was directed at me—is undermined by the fact that 16 years before, she went to friends and told people,” she told the National Law Journal. “So this is not something that she’s told for the first time at this point, this is something that people knew and they seem to be confirming.”
Hill told the publication that women like Smith, who decided to share her story after she heard the infamous hot mic tape of Donald Trump making predatory comments about grabbing and kissing women without their consent, come forward when other women do because it puts them in a “better position” to speak out.
“I think that’s what’s happening to a lot of women who are telling about their experiences publicly for the first time,” Hill told the National Law Journal. “That they see this moment where other women are stepping up.”
