Kathleen Willey

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Kathleen Willey was a White House volunteer aide who, on March 15, 1998, alleged on the TV news program 60 Minutes that Bill Clinton had sexually assaulted her over four years earlier, on November 29, 1993, during his first term as U.S. President. According to Willey, during a meeting in the private study off the Oval Office, Clinton had embraced her tightly, kissed her on the mouth, fondled her breast and then placed her hand on his penis. Clinton denied assaulting Willey.

According to Linda Tripp’s grand jury testimony, Willey pursued a romance with Clinton from the start of her White House affiliation. Willey had speculated with Tripp as to how she might be able to set up an assignation between herself and the president. She routinely attended events at which Clinton would be present, wearing a black dress she believed he liked. According to Tripp’s testimony, she wondered if she and Clinton could arrange to meet in a home to which she had access, on the Chesapeake Bay.

Tripp also challenged Willey’s account of that Oval Office meeting. According to Tripp, Willey had arranged the meeting in part to see if her flirtation with Clinton might advance. After Clinton and Willey met privately, Willey rushed back to Tripp’s office to describe the meeting. According to Tripp, Willey “smiled from ear to ear the entire time” as she described the event. “She seemed almost shocked, but happy-shocked,” Tripp told the grand jury. Willey told Tripp that she and Clinton had "smooched," but made no mention of a sexual assault. When asked if she believed Willey's account, Tripp responded, "Did I believe her? Oh, absolutely. No question in my mind."

Willey's husband, Edward E. Willey Jr., an attorney in Richmond, Virginia, had previously embezzled $225,000 from business clients. On November 28, the night before her meeting with Clinton, Willey called Tripp saying that she had a fight with her husband about the fraud and that he had left home afterwards. A $274,000 note was due on the 29th, stemming from the embezzlement. Ed Willey drove to a rural area of King and Queen County, Virginia and apparently committed suicide by shooting himself on the 29th, the same day as his wife's alleged Oval Office encounter. His body was found on the 30th. ^[1]

An Independent Counsel report noted that Willey “had given substantially different accounts in two sworn statements and had lied to the FBI about her relationship with a former boyfriend.” Further, “Following Willey’s acknowledgment of the lie, the Independent Counsel agreed not to prosecute her for false statements in this regard.”

Willey was remarried in November 1999 to Bill Schwicker and now resides in Powhatan County, Virginia.

This alleged assault gained traction in the press due to other assault claims by Paula Jones, and Juanita Broaddrick.