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Katherine Prudhomme, the Derry, N.H., housewife who once challenged Vice
President Al Gore to say whether he believed Bill Clinton raped Juanita
Broaddrick, was hit with an IRS audit on Friday, just hours before she
was scheduled to appear at a rape awareness rally outside Hillary
Clinton's Manhattan campaign headquarters.
"My husband got the IRS's letter yesterday," Prudhomme told NewsMax.com.
"They looked at our records from 1998 and decided we have to pay more
money."
Prudhomme said she's never been audited before and had no dramatic
changes recently in her family income, which she described as "middle
class."
"I feel like we're being harassed," said the feisty crusader. "My husband
went over our return last night and couldn't find any red flags that
might have triggered an IRS investigation."
Along with those who heard her announce the news outside Clinton's New
York Senate campaign offices Saturday, Prudhomme suspects that the audit
may have been triggered by a different kind of red flag: her determined
questioning of Gore about Juanita Broaddrick at a town meeting last
December - and her announced intention to get Hillary Clinton to address
the same issue.
"Well, I don't know what to make of her claim," the veep told the town
meeting audience with a nervous laugh in his voice, "because I don't know
how to evaluate that story, I really don't."
Prudhomme's tax examination comes on the heels of an IRS audit of
Broaddrick herself, who had the books of her nursing home business
scrutinized in May by an agent who couldn't find anything wrong.
The New Hampshirite wasn't so lucky. The IRS says she and her husband owe
a whopping $1,500. "I think the timing is pretty suspicious," Prudhomme
complained, "coming the very day before we had this demonstration."
The odds of yet another Clinton accuser being hit by an IRS audit are
mind-boggling. Before Prudhomme and Broaddrick, Gennifer Flowers, Paula
Jones and Liz Ward Gracen had their tax returns investigated. Gracen even
said she was hit with a tax probe after an anonymous caller threatened
"you could be audited" if she didn't lay low during Jones' sexual
harassment lawsuit.
The rally that Prudhomme suspects caught the IRS's eye was attended by
"Friends of Juanita Broaddrick" from around the tri-state area, including
many who frequent the Web site FreeRepublic.com, where the event was
publicized.
"Thousands of passers-by heard our message," Prudhomme told NewsMax.com
after giving a speech to the crowd condemning Clinton's Broaddrick rape
as a "hate crime," not "a personal mistake" - the words Gore used in his
response to her nine months ago.
After her remarks, Prudhomme entered Hillary 2000 headquarters and
personally handed a videotape of Broaddrick's devastating February 1999
NBC interview to a campaign aide with instructions that it be given to
the first lady. "The man who took the tape wouldn't tell me who he was,"
she said.
Mrs. Clinton, who has never commented on Broaddrick's charge, was
reportedly out of town for the weekend.
Besides Prudhomme, the anti-rape protest had the support of Marie-Jose
Ragab, president of the Dulles chapter of the National Organization for
Women. Ragab sent the following statement, which Prudhomme shared with
the crowd:
"We are honored to be here today and thank Katherine and the 'Friends of
Juanita Broaddrick' for inviting breakaway Dulles NOW to participate in
their rally. The unfaltering support it has given to Mrs. Broaddrick has
brought encouragement and hope to many women similarly victimized and we
admire the dedication they have shown to advance the cause of human
rights.
"Standing in stark contrast to the strangely silent women's groups
formerly convulsed in outrage over Anita Hill's soda can, Katherine
Prudhomme embodied the very spirit of true feminism when she courageously
asked Vice President Gore in front of a televised audience: 'Do you
believe Juanita Broaddrick?'
"Possibly aware that no controlling legal authorities were firmly in
place at the time of the assault, Mr. Gore's vague reply was indicative
of how desperately Democratic faithful want to ignore her very existence.
"Asked the same question, Betty Friedan repeatedly professed that she had
never heard of Juanita. NOW's Patricia Ireland found her both credible
and responsible for the unspeakable crime. Health Secretary Shalala said
she had reached no conclusion, busy as she was serving the president.
Susan Estrich exhorted all to 'move on.'
"This gathering is a reminder that the story of Mrs. Broaddrick has not
and will not 'move on' and that it looms larger every day. Katherine and
her friends have come here to ask again, 'Do you believe Juanita?' As a
candidate for high public office it is a fair question for Mrs. Clinton
to answer."
NewsMax.com gratefully acknowledges the help of FreeRepublic.com in
preparing this report.
Read the full text of Katherine Prudhomme's speech outside Hillary
Clinton's campaign headquarters. |
