A man who has long claimed to be the son of former President Bill Clinton made a public plea to Monica Lewinsky Tuesday for DNA from her famous blue dress, which he wants so he can try to confirm his relationship to Clinton.
Danney Williams said he sent a letter to Lewinsky, the former White House intern who had an affair with Clinton, to seek a DNA sample from the dress she provided to the government during a special prosecutor investigation into Clinton’s activities almost two decades ago.
Flanked by side-by-side photographs of himself and Clinton, Williams told reporters at a press conference in Washington, D.C., Tuesday that he has tried for years to get the attention of his alleged father, to no avail. The press conference was preceded by a video in which Williams described the pain of being “banished” by the Clintons and his contemplation of suicide during a rough upbringing in Arkansas.
“Chelsea [Clinton] is my sister,” Williams said in the video.
Williams has long claimed to be the abandoned illegitimate son of Clinton and an Arkansas prostitute named Bobbie Ann Williams. However, a DNA analysis published by Star Magazine in 1999 using data made public by the separate Kenneth Starr investigation reportedly concluded that Williams was not related to Bill Clinton.
Still, Williams has continued to claim on social media that the former president is his biological father, and his Internet defenders argue the DNA analysis that debunked his claim was imprecise.
Williams said during the introductory video that the Star test was faulty because Bill Clinton had a personal relationship with the magazine’s publisher.
Joel Gilbert, the Los Angeles-based filmmaker who produced the opening video, said he has “absolutely no doubt” that Williams was “Hillary Clinton’s stepson.”
“She has not accepted her black son into her family,” Gilbert claimed.
His supporters, several of whom spoke at the event, called on the reporters present to cover Williams’ story with seriousness in order to pressure the Clintons into acknowledging his existence.
At one point during the event, to shouts of “Hallelujah” from members of the audience, Williams’ supporters “christened” him with oil and shouted prayers for his ordeal to be resolved.
