RFK Jr. Accuser Shares His Apology Texts With The Washington Post, Calls Them ‘Disingenuous and Arrogant’
AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall
Eliza Cooney, a former babysitter for presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the late 1990s, accused Kennedy of sexual assault while she worked for him. After the story was included in a damning Vanity Fair profile, Kennedy dodged questions about it. Now, The Washington Post reported that Kennedy apologized to Cooney via text, but she’s not buying the sincerity of it.
The story, published on Friday, included the texts that Cooney received from Kennedy after the Vanity Fair article came out. Cooney was the one who shared them with the Post, who published them:
“I have no memory of this incident but I apologize sincerely for anything I ever did that made you feel uncomfortable or anything I did or said that offended you or hurt your feelings,” Kennedy wrote in a text message to Cooney sent at 12:33 a.m. on July 4, two days after her accusations became public. “I never intended you any harm. If I hurt you, it was inadvertent. I feel badly for doing so.”
He added, “If you feel comfortable, Id [sic] like to tell you this by phone, and preferably, face to face. I recognize that this might not be possible. I have no agenda for sending this text other than making the most sincere and ernest [sic] amends.”
The Post also verified that the texts came from Kennedy’s phone. When asked for a response, Kennedy told the Post nothing more than: “The text message speaks for itself.”
But Cooney shared her doubts about the nature of the apology:
In an interview with The Post, Cooney, now 48, voiced incredulity that Kennedy would claim not to remember the incident and said she believed his efforts to contact her were meant as damage control rather than a genuine expression of remorse.
“It was disingenuous and arrogant,” Cooney said of his message. “I’m not sure how somebody has a true apology for something that they don’t admit to recalling. I did not get a sense of remorse.”
She said she was also disturbed by Kennedy’s suggestion that they meet in person.
“Meet ‘face to face?’ What woman wants to do that?” Cooney said.
Cooney accused Kennedy of groping her at the time she worked for him; she was 23 years old at the time, Kennedy was 45 and married. In an interview after the Vanity Fair article, Kennedy dodged questions about the allegations, only saying, “I’m not a church boy” and “I have so many skeletons in my closet that if they if they could all vote, I could run for king of the world.”
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