Anita Hill Calls For Probe Into New Groping Allegations Against Clarence Thomas

Anita Hill is calling for an investigation into the latest sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, according to the National Law Journal.

Hill, who testified against Thomas during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 1991, said there should be a “fair investigation … by an appropriate body” over a woman’s claims that Thomas groped her in 1999.

Moira Smith, vice president and general counsel at Enstar Natural Gas Co., told the National Law Journal that Thomas grabbed her without her consent in 1999. Smith said Thomas “cupped” and “squeezed” her behind when she met him at a Truman Foundation dinner.

Hill compared reaction to Smith’s claims to her own experience. Hill testified Thomas sexually harassed her when he was her supervisor at the U.S. Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

“To say that something like this is coming for political gains ― and of course that was an allegation that was directed at me ― is undermined by the fact that 16 years before, she went to friends and told people,” Hill told the NLJ Thursday. “So this is not something that she’s told for the first time at this point, this is something that people knew and they seem to be confirming.”

Through a Supreme Court spokeswoman, Thomas denied Smith’s allegations.

Read more on Hill at the National Law Journal.