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Ex-President George H.W. Bush Apologizes After Actress Accuses Him of Groping

by Reuters

   Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush apologized through a spokesman
   on Wednesday for what an actress described as a sexual assault but
   which Bush said was intended as a friendly pat and a joke to put her at
   ease during a picture-taking session.

   Heather Lind, who starred in the AMC cable television network's
   historical drama "Turn: Washington's Spies," accused Bush of groping
   her as they posed for photos together with his wife and others during a
   promotional event for the show in 2014.

   The allegation surfaced in an Instagram post from Lind featuring a
   photograph of Bush, 93, shaking hands with former President Barack
   Obama during an appearance of all five living former presidents at
   Saturday's hurricane fund-raising benefit.

   In the post, Lind, 34, said that seeing that photo reminded her of her
   own meeting with the 41st president three years earlier, when,
   according to her, "he sexually assaulted me while I was posing for a
   similar photo."

   "He didn't shake my hand. He touched me from behind from his wheelchair
   with his wife Barbara Bush by his side," Lind wrote.

   "He told me a dirty joke. And then, all the while being photographed,
   touched me again." Lind said the former first lady "rolled her eyes as
   if to say, 'not again.'"

   The Instagram post, since deleted, carried the "MeToo" social media
   hashtag spawned by the recent outpouring of sexual assault and sexual
   harassment accusations leveled against former Hollywood executive
   Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein has denied engaging in non-consensual sex
   with anyone.

   Bush's spokesman Jim McGrath, issued a statement in response to Lind's
   post that sought to explain the former president's behavior as an
   attempt to make light of social awkwardness posed by his own physical
   disability during photo sessions.

   Confined to a wheelchair, as Bush has been for about the past five
   years, "his arm falls on the lower waist of people with whom he take
   pictures," McGrath said.

   "To try to put people at ease, the president routinely tells the same
   joke - and on occasion, he has patted women's rears in what he intended
   to be a good-natured manner. Some have seen it as innocent; others
   clearly view it as inappropriate," McGrath wrote. "To anyone he has
   offended, President Bush apologizes most sincerely."

   Representatives for the actress were not immediately available for
   comment on the president's response to her allegations, and it was not
   clear what prompted her to take down the Instagram post in question.