New Details Emerge About Herman Cain's Accusers; Former Colleague Defends Him
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Scott Eells/Bloomberg via Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- The sexual harassment scandal surrounding Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain keeps unfolding.On Thursday, as first reported by Politco, it was revealed that one of his accusers from the 1990s who worked in the communications department when Cain headed the National Restaurant Association received a $45,000 settlement after complaining about the former CEO's allegedly untoward behavior.
Previously, Cain had suggested that his accuser received somewhere in the neighborhood of two to three months' salary in agreeing to leave the NRA and not talk about the case.
The New York Times reported earlier in the week that another woman who alleged Cain had sexually harassed her departed from the restaurant group with $35,000.
These accusations and the accompanying settlements have raised questions about Cain's character since he initially said he wasn't aware of any settlements made to his accusers, a claim he has since changed. Cain then underestimated the size of the payments, although he had steadfastly insisted that the allegations made against him during the 1990s were false.
In other developments, Politico also reported that the still-anonymous woman who received the $35,000 payout had alleged that Cain made an overt sexual suggestion to her during an NRA event and that she told two people about it before making a complaint to a NRA board member on the same night the incident allegedly occurred.
The woman charged that when Cain came on to her, “she perceived that her job was at risk if she didn’t do it.”
At the time she left in 1998, the woman, who was 30 years old then, didn't mention Cain specifically: she claimed she was quitting the NRA’s government affairs division because “she was not getting along with her bosses.” Politico said it learned of the new details through several sources familiar with the alleged incident, but it won't identify its sources, nor will they apparently come forward.
These accusations and the accompanying settlements have raised questions about Cain's character since he initially said he wasn't aware of any settlements made to his accusers, a claim he has since changed. Cain then underestimated the size of the payments, although he had steadfastly insisted that the allegations made against him during the 1990s were false.
In other developments, Politico also reported that the still-anonymous woman who received the $35,000 payout had alleged that Cain made an overt sexual suggestion to her during an NRA event and that she told two people about it before making a complaint to a NRA board member on the same night the incident allegedly occurred.
The woman charged that when Cain came on to her, “she perceived that her job was at risk if she didn’t do it.”
At the time she left in 1998, the woman, who was 30 years old then, didn't mention Cain specifically: she claimed she was quitting the NRA’s government affairs division because “she was not getting along with her bosses.” Politico said it learned of the new details through several sources familiar with the alleged incident, but it won't identify its sources, nor will they apparently come forward.
Cain has maintained that nothing inappropriate happened with his accuser.
Meantime, in an interview with the Daily Caller website, former National Restaurant Association Board chairman Joseph Fassler offered a defense of former colleague Cain, saying he "never heard anything about Herman that would suggest he had those sort of allegations lodged against him. He was...thoroughly professional."
Fassler called the accusations "a hatchet job."
Read On ABC News Radio: http://abcnewsradioonline.com/politics-news/new-details-emerge-about-herman-cains-accusers-former-collea.html#ixzz1ckMoub5S
