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.
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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.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Michael Perry)
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