Woman accuses Justice Clarence Thomas of groping her in 1999

A woman is claiming that Justice Clarence Thomas groped her when she was a young scholar in 1999, an allegation the justice denies.

Moira Smith claims Thomas squeezed her on the buttocks several times at a dinner party when she was a Truman Foundation Scholar, according to the National Law Journal, which first reported the allegations. 

{mosads}In a statement through a Supreme Court spokeswoman, Thomas denied Smith’s allegations. 

“This claim is preposterous and it never happened,” the spokeswoman said.

National Law Journal spoke to three of Smith’s former roommates during the spring and summer of 1999 in an attempt to corroborate her allegations. Each said they remembered Smith describing the inappropriate interaction with Thomas. Two of Smith’s roommates also told The Associated Press they remembered being told about the incident.

The journal also spoke to three other people who attended the same dinner, including Louis Blair, the former head of the Truman Foundation, who had no knowledge of the alleged incident. Blair questioned whether Thomas ever would have been alone with a dinner guest.

Thomas faced sexual harassment allegations in 1991, when Anita Hill made allegations that threatened his confirmation to the Supreme Court.

Hill testified that Thomas had sexually harassed her verbally when she worked for him at the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and again when he served as chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Thomas has steadfastly denied her accusations.

Smith first came forward with her groping allegations in a Facebook post on Oct. 7, just days after a 2005 recording was leaked of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump bragging about kissing women and grabbing their genitals.

“That willingness by men in power to take advantage of vulnerable women relies on an unspoken pact that the women will not speak up about it,” Smith told National Law Journal.

Thomas, who was nominated to the court by President George H. W. Bush, is known for his somber demeanor on the bench. He celebrated 25 years on the court on Sunday.

In a Bench Memo for National Review Thursday, Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director of the conservative Judicial Crisis Network, called the allegations against Thomas implausible and Smith a partisan Democrat. 
 
Severino clerked for Thomas from 2007 to 2008. 
 
“Those of us who have known the Justice or worked with him in any capacity, by contrast, including those who disagree with him, recognize him to be a good and honest man,” she wrote. 

Smith is vice president and general counsel of the Alaska-based ENSTAR Natural Gas Co.

This story was updated at 5:07 p.m.