Where's Paula Jones? Ex-Arkansas state employee was sexually harassed by Bill Clinton
The highly anticipated third season of ‘American Crime Story’ titled ‘Impeachment’ will premiere on September 7 on FX. Set in the 1990s, the ten-episode series revisits the Bill Clinton White House scandal, Paula Jones’s sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton, Clinton’s sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, Lewinsky’s friendship with Linda Tripp, the Ken Starr Report, the infamous and lurid document prepared by the independent counsel Kenneth Starr, and more.
The series, which delves into the lives of Lewinsky, Tripp, Jones, and Hillary Clinton, per the New York Times, aims to not necessarily be “rehabilitative, but the creators and actors wanted to understand the ambitions, fears, and desires that motivated these women.”
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Jones, of course, is an important figure in the story. The former Arkansas state clerk, files a suit against Bill Clinton in the federal court in Little Rock, Arkansas, in January 1994, asking for $700,000 in damages. Jones claimed that Clinton, while governor of Arkansas, sexually harassed her and then defamed her after she went public with her accusations.
In 1991, when she worked for the State of Arkansas' Industrial Development Commission, Clinton allegedly beckoned her to his suite at the hotel where the conference was being held, and after a few minutes of conversation, "unexpectedly reached over to me, took my hand, and pulled me toward him, so that our bodies were close to each other."
She alleged that Clinton made a number of sexual comments, slid his hand up her thigh, and tried unsuccessfully to kiss her on the neck until she stopped him. Jones walked away from Clinton and tried to change the conversation. But Clinton allegedly walked back toward her, "lowered his trousers and underwear, exposed his penis (which was erect) and told me to 'kiss it.'" When Jones rejected the overture, Clinton allegedly said, "I don't want to make you do anything you don't want to do." Before she left, she claimed Clinton added, "You are smart. Let's keep this between ourselves."
A federal district judge ruled that Clinton could not stand trial until leaving office, but that the investigation into Jones’ allegations could proceed. Jones appealed and in 1996 won the right to proceed to trial in the Supreme Court. Clinton then filed a request to delay the trial until he left office.
The lawsuit dragged on for years. Finally, federal district court judge Susan Webber Wright granted summary judgment in Clinton's favor, saying that even if the events alleged transpired, they did not amount to sexual assault. Wright said that Jones had no evidence she'd been punished or emotionally afflicted in the workplace for rebuffing the governor.
Where is Paula Jones now?
In 2016, Jones said that she was a supporter of then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. “I like Donald Trump!” she said. “I’m going to vote for the person who I think is best for our country, and to get it back on track, and the person who can be trusted. Somebody who is from the heart and is a truthful person and loves our country.”
She also criticized Hillary Clinton at the time and said, “She can’t be trusted. I don’t see how they can believe that she is for women. She is for herself.” She also expressed her incredulity that Bill Clinton’s “got the nerve” to campaign for his wife: “I can’t believe he’s still going out there and showing his face. How can you go out there and talk to people like nothing has happened?”
In 2017, she said in an interview with Vanity Fair. “I’m very conservative -- very conservative,” she says. A Southern Baptist, she said, “I grew up in a strict, strict religious family. Kind of like old Pentecostal -- the bones, and no makeup, no cutting your hair, long dresses. Never have been a wild child or anything. That’s why I want to do a book. Because there’s so much to be told about me and my upbringing and how people have tried to portray me, as though this is why Bill Clinton did what he did to me. They tried to find the people who would make me look bad — as though I deserved what I got, you know what I’m saying?”