Donald Trump’s presidential campaign on Tuesday denied a longtime political ally’s claim that Trump donated money to help pay off a mortgage held by a woman who accused former President Bill Clinton of sexual assault.
“There’s no truth to that,” spokeswoman Hope Hicks told Fox News.
Liberal watchdog Media Matters For America on Monday flagged a February interview in which longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone said that Trump had given money to Kathleen Willey. Willey, a former White House volunteer, accused Clinton of groping her in 1993; Clinton denied that allegation in a 1998 deposition.
“Trump is himself a contributor — I’m not ready to disclose what he has given. And many, many other people,” Stone said in the interview with conspiracy-minded radio host Alex Jones while advertising a website accepting donations toward Willey’s mortgage.
Willey currently is a paid spokeswoman for an anti-Hillary Clinton political action committee created by Stone called the Rape Accountability Project for Education PAC, or RAPE PAC, according to Reuters.
Media Matters surfaced the Stone interview after Trump used audio of Willey’s accusations in a web video targeting Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
“No woman should be subjected to it. It was an assault,” Willey can be heard saying in the video.
Stone was an adviser to the Trump campaign until the two parted ways last summer, with Trump saying he fired Stone and Stone saying he quit. But that hasn’t stopped Stone from weighing in on the latest developments in the presidential race, including encouraging Trump supporters to track down anti-Trump delegates at the GOP convention.
