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| Schwarzenegger to launch probe into groping allegations against him
LOS ANGELES, Nov 6 (AFP) - California governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Thursday he was launching a probe into damaging charges of sexual harassment that surfaced during his campaign. Furious aides announced the move after the state's top legal official, Attorney General Bill Lockyer, publicly warned that Schwarzenegger should submit to an independent investigation to rid himself of the "stain" of allegations that he "groped" a string of women. BizVantage – Beyond the news: when knowing counts. "The governor-elect had already decided to engage a well respected investigative firm to look into the allegations," Schwarzenegger's spokesman Rob Stutzman said, reacting to Lockyer's comments. The "Terminator" star is in the process of hiring investigators to probe charges he "groped" and molested 16 women, mostly on movie sets, over nearly three decades of his Hollywood career, Stutzman said. Lockyer told reporters Thursday he had urged Schwarzenegger in a meeting to agree to a third-party inquiry to establish if there were any grounds for criminal charges to be levelled against him. "I don't think the issue's going to go away until he's willing to have some form of independent, third-party review of those complaints to see if there's any criminal liability that attaches," Lockyer said Thursday. "I think it's a stain on his reputation and administration, to have these lingering doubts, and I think they should deal with them forthrightly," he said in the state capital Sacramento. The attorney general revealed to journalists that Schwarzenegger had told him he was worried about the allegations but that he denies them. "He's very concerned, I think, about the matters. He obviously now thinks that there is not a legitimate basis for the complaint and that a revue of some sort would demonstrate his innocence." Schwarzenegger's office rounded on the attorney general, who ironically ignored party loyalties and voted for Schwarzenegger in the special October 7 recall election aimed at ousting Democratic Governor Gray Davis. "(Schwarzenegger) had intended to instruct the investigators to turn over the final results of that investigation to the attorney general; he will now reconsider that option," Stutzman said. He accused Lockyer of violating attorney-client privilege by revealing details of his meeting with Schwarzenegger after having presented himself as the governor-elect's lawyer. "Attorney General Lockyer's breach of that confidentiality is serious, and the governor-elect is very concerned about this development," Stutzman told journalists. "(T)he governor-elect had a rightful expectation that his communication with the attorney general would be covered by privilege." The fracas between the incoming Republican governor and his Democratic attorney general came less than two weeks before his scheduled November 17 swearing-in following his October 7 election landslide. In the final days of the "Predator" star's campaign, a wave of allegations emerged, mostly in the Los Angeles Times, detailing alleged sexual assaults on women on movie and television sets over the years. The women, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, claimed the "True Lies" star and Republican candidate had fondled their breasts, tried to undress them and engaged in sexually graphic banter with them. Schwarzenegger was forced to publicly apologize for his "rowdy" behaviour towards women on sets, but insisted that at least some of the charges were not true and were the part of a smear campaign against him. "Yes, it is true that I was on rowdy movie sets and I have done things that were not right, that I thought were playful but now I recognise that I have offended people," he said at a campaign rally as the allegations emerged just days before polling. "To those people that I have offended, I want to say to them that I am deeply sorry and I apologize." The alleged incidents of sexual harassment took place between 1975 and 2000. ml/gs US-politics-Schwarzenegger
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