Bizarre, Politics, Torts

Et Tu, Perry? Cain Accuses Perry Campaign As Source Of Sexual Harassment Claims

Herman Cain believes that he has found the fingerprints on the knife in his back in the expanding sexual harassment scandal . . . Rick Perry. The Cain camp has said it was Perry’s campaign that leaked the story to Politico in a hit job on Cain. Of course, there still remains the question of who told the Perry campaign about the allegations in the confidential settlement. Yet, according to the New York Times article below, there were plenty of folks who were aware of the allegations — and contradict Cain’s account. In a race to the bottom, Perry’s people have pointed fingers at the Romney camp.


Cain says that a top political adviser to Mr. Perry leaked the details and that the adviser learned of the allegation while working on Cain’s failed bid for the Senate in 2004. Attention also has been focused today on a Perry pollster who worked for the National Restaurant Association during that period.

Perry insists the allegation is “reckless and false,” which leads to a question of whether any of this could result in a defamation charge. As is often the case, politicians often cry falsehoods but never bring such charges where the true culprit would be exposed in discovery. Someone is clearly lying not just about the original harassment allegations but the source of the recent disclosures. It would appear that both would be grounds for defamation. The sexual harassment claims raise moral turpitude and illegality. The charge of being the source of the scandal raise allegations of lying and bad practices. Both could be placed within common law categories of “per se” defamation.

There is no liability for raising the controversy for the Perry adviser unless he violated a confidentiality rule, such as acquiring the information as an attorney in a representational role. However, repeating defamation is defamation — in this case potential per se slander.

It is unlikely that either camp seriously wants to find itself in discovery. Thus, we will continue to have both camps scream liar, liar without litigation — or resolution. What is interesting are the new sources claiming that the details of the harassment claims would end the Cain campaign. Cain and the restaurant association will be likely under greater pressure to waive the confidentiality rule, as discussed earlier.

Source: NY Times

52 thoughts on “Et Tu, Perry? Cain Accuses Perry Campaign As Source Of Sexual Harassment Claims”

  1. Thanks for the link to the video, Lottakatz. (…Gene H., too…)

    Robert Duvall, Apocalypse Now (1979):

    You smell that? Do you smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We didn’t find one of ’em, not one stinkin’ dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like… victory. Someday this war’s gonna end…

  2. Blouise, The interesting question is whether or not Ron Paul runs on the libertarian ticket.

  3. Blouise, You are right about Romney but not Huntsman. He is at 1%. Cain’s vote will go to Gingrich, I guess.

  4. SwM,

    Told you … 🙂

    Seriously … watch Jon Huntsman … he could pull off a Clinton ’92

  9. Thanks Gene, that vid didn’t have an ’embed’ box and the address link looked truncated since it was from the ‘related’ bar. The UTube is getting too complicated for me 🙂

  11. Thank, LK, raff. I was merely re-posting it for her. That in no way changes it’s a classic though. 😀

  15. Lawrence Berg:
    “I put the blame for this squarely where it belongs. Democrats. If the Democrats could govern with a coherent message dispelling the Talk Propaganda, the GOP would not have sunk this low …”
    —————–
    BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Atcha, not witcha.

  18. This looks to me like the World Championship Boxing Match between the two top contenders in the Tomato Can Division.

  19. Bdaman,
    If Bush will show the country his sources that Iraq had WMD’s, then maybe we can discuss outing sources. Oh, I forgot it was a preemptive defensive move!

  20. Both sources, one male and one female, worked at the time — mid-1990s — for the governmental affairs department of the National Restaurant Association, as did the woman.

    According to the female source, Mr. Cain and the woman had been with a large group for a long evening of food and drink at the Ciao Baby Cucina, a restaurant near NRA headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C. This was a normal routine, as the trade association worked with the food and beverage industry. Afterwards, Mr. Cain allegedly took the woman by taxi to his apartment, where she spent the night and woke up.

    The female source told PJ Media that she witnessed the woman and Herman Cain break away from the large group as part of a smaller group.

    Neither source has direct knowledge of what occurred at Mr. Cain’s residence, but several days after the alleged incident, the female source witnessed the woman returning to her workplace “distraught.” “She was very upset.”

    One source told PJ Media: “Some people didn’t believe [the accuser]” at the time she made the allegation. The female source recalls the woman continued working at the NRA for several weeks after the encounter; the male source recalls the woman continued working there for a few months.

    More… PROFESSOR JACOBSON TO POLITICO: Show Us Your Sources Or Shut Up! With a RatherGate reference. He’s absolutely right that you can’t trust MSM on political scandals involving Republicans. Or, as the John Edwards affair demonstrates, Democrats.

    http://pjmedia.com/blog/breaking-pjm-sources-report-details-of-alleged-cain-incident/

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