Hillary Clinton: Defending Rapist Was ‘Obligation’ (Video)

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said defending an Arkansas rapist was her “obligation” in a new video making its rounds on YouTube.

Clinton, who at the time was a law professor at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, said she actually tried to get off the case that had her defending a child rapist but her request was denied, ABC News reported.

“‘When I was a 27-year-old attorney doing legal-aid work at the law school where I taught in Fayetteville, Arkansas, I was appointed by the local judge to represent a criminal defendant accused of rape. I asked to be relieved of that responsibility, but I was not, and I had a professional duty to represent my client to the best of my ability, which I did,’ Clinton said.

“… ‘When you’re a lawyer you often don’t have the choice to choose who you will represent, and by the very nature of criminal law there will be those who you represent that you won’t approve of,’ she said. ‘But at least in our system you have an obligation, and once I was appointed, I fulfilled that obligation.'”

The rape victim herself spoke out in an interview with The Daily Beast, telling the online news organization that Clinton’s defense of the rapist had actually put her through “hell.”

The victim, whose name was withheld by the website and has never been publicly identified, said she listened to tapes obtained by the Washington Free Beacon showing the then-law professor apparently laughing during a conversation about the case. As a result, the child rape victim said she would want to tell Clinton a few things face to face should the two ever meet.

“I would say [to Clinton], ‘You took a case of mine in ’75, you lied on me… I realize the truth now, the heart of what you’ve done to me. And you are supposed to be for women? You call that [being] for women, what you done to me? And I hear you on tape laughing.'”

Clinton has found herself more on defense than she and most political pundits likely estimated as she has been on a national book tour promoting her latest work, “Hard Choices.”

The first and most notable stumble for the former secretary of state and senator was a statement she made talking about being dead broke after she and former President Bill Clinton left the white house at the beginning of the century. The comments caused a media firestorm, as evidenced in this Inquisitr report.

[Image via Flickr Creative Commons]