Greg Sargent has this part of Herman Cain’s statement today:
I was falsely accused of sexual harassment. And when the charges were brought, as the leader of the organization I recused myself and allowed my general counsel and my human resource officer to deal with the situation. And it was concluded after a thorough investigation that it had no basis.
As for a settlement, I am unaware of any sort of settlement. I hope it wasn’t for much, because I didn’t do anything. But the fact of the matter is, I’m not aware of a settlement that came out of that accusation. Per the article, two anonymous sources claim it’s sexual harassment. We’re not gonna chase anonymous sources when there’s no basis for the accusation.
As I pointed out earlier, this vindicates the Politico in their reporting (and the “liberal media” claims). Even more interesting is what Jennifer Rubin, someone who is anything but a lefty, points out:
At the National Press Club, Cain says he recused himself as head of the organization from handling the sexual harassment claim and it was dealt with by the general counsel and human resources person. So he never asked what happened to the accusation? No one ever told him about confidentiality obligations? He never got confirmation that he would be absolved of any personal liability? I am having a hard time understanding how this happened..
And that’s a big point. Cain was head of the organization at this time and it was facing a huge legal problem. As the head of the organization, Cain should have wanted to know the outcome at a minimum. I would venture as far to say that Cain knows what the exact settlement was, unless he didn’t care about big sums of money just going out of his organization’s coffers. The idea that a settlement may have been rumor is also void now that we have another major news organizations confirming one of the accusers.
This is sounding more and more like it could be the end of the Cain campaign. The Republican primary is already a blood bath and this is some excellent ammo for his opponents. Now we just have to wait for a new round of polling to come out.