Clinton backers paid $700,000 for women to smear Trump before election, report says

In a failed effort to defame Trump, Clinton backers set up a fund of close to a million dollars for women to accuse him of sexual harassment before the national election, the New York Times reveals.

By: Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A friend and supporter of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund women willing to go forward with accusations of sexual harassment against then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, a New York Times report indicates.

According to the Times, lawyer Lisa Bloom, who specializes in representing women in sexual harassment cases, became involved during the presidential campaign with the potential cases of a few women who made claims against Trump. She then solicited donations from wealthy Clinton backers.

Susie Tompkins Buell, founder of Esprit Clothing and a major Clinton campaign donor, answered the call and gave Bloom half a million dollars. Clinton operative David Brock also donated $200,000 to the effort through a nonprofit group, the Times said.

Bloom denied that she had offered the women money to come forward. “It doesn’t cost anything to publicly air allegations,” she said, explaining there were costs that could come up should the cases advance.

“Security and relocation are expensive and were sorely needed in a case of this magnitude, in a country filled with so much anger, hate and violence,” she said.

Ultimately, however, the plan failed, as none of the women came forward, and Bloom said she refunded most of the money, keeping only some to cover her expenses.

Bloom said she never communicated with Clinton or her campaign “on any of this,” and representatives from the Clinton campaign said they were unaware of the efforts.

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