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Ginni Thomas left a voicemail for Anita Hill, asking her to apologize for accusing her husband of sexual harassment.
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The voicemail came in 2010, nearly 20 years after Thomas’s Supreme Court hearing.
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Thomas described the call to The New York Times as an attempt at “peacekeeping”; Hill called it “inappropriate.”
Nearly 20 years after her husband was confirmed in Supreme Court, Ginni Thomas left a voicemail for Anita Hill, asking her to apologize for accusing Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment.
On October 9, 2010, Anita Hill, then a lawyer and professor at Brandeis University, received a voicemail on her office line, People reportedfrom the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
“I’d like you to consider an apology some time and a full explanation of why you did what you did to my husband,” Ginni Thomas said in voicemail, People reported† “So think about it and definitely pray for this and come to understand why you did what you did. Okay, have a nice day.”
In 1991, Hill became the focus of controversial hearings for Thomas after an FBI report on her allegations was leaked to the press. She later testified before Congress that Thomas had repeatedly sexually harassed her while she was his subordinate and engaged in inappropriate behavior in the workplace.
He was eventually confirmed in a 52-48 vote.
Hill described the phone call from Thomas’s wife as “definitely inappropriate” in an interview with… The New York Times†
“It came in at 7:30 am on my office phone from someone I didn’t know, and she’s asking for an apology,” Hill said. The New York Times when the voicemail was first reported. “It wasn’t invited. There was no background to it.”
In a statement sent through her publicist, Thomas admitted that she called the woman her husband was accused of intimidating and said she didn’t mean to offend.
“I called Ms. Hill at her office and gave her an olive branch after all these years, hoping that we can eventually move past what happened so long ago,” The New York Times reported Thomas. “That offer still stands. I’d love to meet her and talk to her if she’d like to do the same. It was certainly never meant to offend.”
Hill did not accept the apology, however, proverb“I understand it wasn’t meant to be offensive, but she can’t ask for an apology without implying I’ve done something wrong, and that’s insulting.”
Read the original article Business Insider