Trump is wrong: Hillary Clinton did not laugh about the rape of a 12-year-old

“Her client she represented got him off and she is seen laughing on two occasions laughing at the girl who was raped.” — Donald Trump

It is totally false to say that Hillary Clinton laughed about the rape of a 12-year-old. And it has been thoroughly debunked . In 1975, Hillary Rodham was a young attorney when a criminal court judge appointed her to defend an indigent man accused of raping a 12-year-old girl. In her memoir, Living History, Clinton wrote that she “really didn’t feel comfortable taking on such a client, but [the prosecutor] reminded me that I couldn’t very well refuse the judge’s request.”

In the 1980s, Arkansas journalist Roy Reed interviewed Hillary Clinton about the case, recording their conversation on tapes for a magazine story than never ultimately was published. In the recordings, there are spots where Clinton chuckles — but never about the central thrust of the case. At one point , recounting that her client passed a polygraph test, she chuckles while saying that it “forever destroyed my faith in polygraphs.”

You can listen to the tape here.

Before the debate, Trump held an unusual press conference with three women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to assault to outright rape. Juanita Broaddrick alleges that Bill Clinton raped her when he was running for Arkansas attorney general in 1978. Paula Jones sued Clinton for allegedly exposing himself to her in a hotel room in 1991. The Jones suit, which went all the way to the Supreme Court, was ultimately dismissed by a judge on the grounds Jones could not show damages. While it was on appeal, Bill Clinton paid $850,000 to settle the suit without admitting liability.

The Jones case revealed his affair with Monica Lewinsky, and Clinton’s decision to lie under oath about Lewinsky in the proceedings ultimately led to Clinton’s impeachment by a Republican-controlled House, and acquittal by the Senate.

Kathleen Willey claims Clinton forcefully kissed her and groped her in the Oval Office in 1993.

Bill Clinton has denied the claims, and no charges were brought in any of the cases. Jones, Broaddrick, and Willey say Hillary Clinton was complicit in her husband’s actions because she denied their stories or threatened them.

Also joining Trump was Kathy Shelton, who was the 12-year-old victim in a rape case in Arkansas in 1975. As the court-appointed defense attorney for the alleged perpetrator, Hillary Clinton pressed for a psychiatric exam of Shelton and won a plea bargain in which her client pled to a reduced charge. Clinton has said she had a professional duty to vigorously defend her client.