McLEAN, Va. — Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain told supporters at a fundraising event Monday night that fresh allegations that he had an extended 13-year affair with a woman in Georgia are untrue.
Washington, D.C. attorney Mary Brett, who attended the event, told The Daily Caller that Cain swore to supporters that if he had a Bible, he’d put his hand on it and vow that the allegations are false.
“He said you’re probably going to hear — if you didn’t before you got here — another allegation about a 13-year affair and it’s absolutely not true,” Brett, who lives in Reston, recalled as she left the Hilton hotel where the event was held.
It was Cain’s first event since Ginger White of Georgia went public with her allegations earlier in the day in an interview with Atlanta station WAGA-TV.
“I was aware that he was married,” White said in the interview. “And I was also aware I was involved in a very inappropriate situation, relationship.”
The allegations that he had an extramarital affair followed stories that Cain was accused of inappropriate sexual behavior dating back to his leadership of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s. He has denied all allegations.
WAGA-TV noted in its story that White has a troubled financial history.
“We found she filed a sexual harassment claim against an employer in 2001,” the WAGA-TV report noted. “That case was settled. We also found a bankruptcy filing nearly 23 years ago in Kentucky, and a number of eviction notices here in DeKalb County over the past six years. The most recent happened this month.”
The report also said, “White says she has been unemployed, and she is a single mom with two kids struggling to make ends meet.”
In a statement released by the Cain campaign, spokesman J.D. Gordon said, “Detractors are trying once again to derail the Cain Train with more accusations of past events that never happened. The Cain campaign is not surprised that another female accuser has come forward due to the fact that earlier allegations were unable to force Herman Cain to drop his presidential bid to renew America.”
But a separate statement from Cain’s attorney, Lin Wood, to WAGA-TV raised eyebrows as it did not deny the affair and rather said, “this appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct between adults — a subject matter which is not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public.”
“No individual, whether a private citizen, a candidate for public office or a public official, should be questioned about his or her private sexual life,” Wood said. “The public’s right to know and the media’s right to report has boundaries and most certainly those boundaries end outside of one’s bedroom door.”
On Monday night, several reporters waited for Cain to depart the hotel after the fundraiser. While his Secret Service detail and staff members were seen walking in and out of the hotel, The Daily Caller did not see Cain leave.
Brett, the Reston woman who said she donated to Cain in protest of being treated unfairly after allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior surfaced, said Cain appeared to be in good spirits. She said his “demeanor” showed that “he is grounded in his faith” and “knows it’s not true.”
“No, you can’t tell it,” Brett said when asked if he appeared bothered by the allegations. “I wondered how he was going to handle all of that.”
Reporters Jamie Weinstein and Will Rahn contributed reporting to this story.