A former lover of President Clinton on Monday lost her effort to revive a defamation case against his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, and two of the former president’s top aides.
Former cabaret singer Gennifer Flowers came to public attention during the 1992 presidential campaign when she described a 12-year affair with Clinton, who later acknowledged a relationship with her.
Flowers charged that during the 1992 campaign Hillary Clinton had helped coordinate campaign attacks against her. Flowers also said James Carville and George Stephanopoulos made defamatory statements about her.
Flowers had said in the suit that Hillary Clinton, Carville and Stephanopoulos falsely accused her of lying about the affair and of doctoring tape recordings of her telephone conversations with Bill Clinton.
She filed suit against the three in 1999. A Nevada appeals court dismissed the suit in 2003, and Flowers appealed to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to revive the legal action.
The 9th Circuit ruled on Monday that Flowers named Hillary Clinton too late in the suit, after the passage of a four-year limitation. “Thus, her claim against Clinton is barred,” a three-judge panel wrote.
As for the top aides, the court said: “Flowers’s failure to present evidence of actual malice is fatal to each claim against Carville and Stephanopoulos.”