But over the weekend a problem arose that could complicate Thomas’s chances. Newsday and National Public Radio reported that a woman who had worked for Thomas at the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the early 1980s complained that Thomas had sexually harassed her. The woman, Anita Hill, now a professor at the University of Oklahoma Law School, claimed Thomas, who was separated from his wife at the time, made suggestive remarks and urged her to date him. She did not report any physical abuse. NEWSWEEK has learned that Hill made her allegation to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Joseph Biden on Sept. 23. When she refused to publicly testify, Biden turned the matter over to the White House, which called in the FBI.
After the FBI interviewed Hill and Thomas, among others, the White House concluded the charges were “unfounded.” Two days later the full committee, which had been informed of the allegations, divided evenly, 7 to 7, over Thomas’s confirmation. In what was presumably a last-ditch attempt to stop Thomas, opponents apparently leaked the charges to the press on the eve of the Senate vote.
Thomas’s chief backer in the Senate, John Danforth of Missouri, called the charges " extreme sleaze" and predicted that Thomas would still win confirmation. Still, there could be some slippage. The whole matter may blow over as a sordid chapter in Washington hardball. But nothing has ever been easy for Clarence Thomas.
