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Sexual harassment and assault
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Bill Cosby’s publicist calls guilty verdict ‘a public lynching’, invokes Emmett Till, black teenager killed by racists in 1950s

Cosby’s publicists continued to maintain that the former TV star has done nothing wrong in an interview on ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’

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Bill Cosby's publicists Ebonee Benson and Andrew Wyatt talk on ABC's 'Good Morning America' on Friday. Photo still: ABC News
Associated Press

Bill Cosby’s guilty verdict for indecent assault was likened to a racist attack by his publicists on Friday, as they also made reference to Emmett Till, the black teenager who was murdered in 1955 in Mississippi after being falsely accused of flirting with a white woman. 

“This became a public lynching,” Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt told host George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s Good Morning America, as he appeared alongside fellow publicist Ebonee Benson. Both continued to protest their client’s innocence after jurors convicted Cosby of three historic counts of aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand on Thursday. 

“You’re saying all these women, all 60 women, are lying?” Stephanopoulos asked.

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“May I ask a question?” Benson replied. “Since when are all people honest? Since when are all women honest? We can take a look at Emmett Till, for example. Not all people are honest.”

Wyatt suggested that lawyer Gloria Allred, who represents more than 30 Cosby accusers, worked to help women fabricate allegations.

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“What Gloria Allred was able to do, what she did, was take a salt and pepper shaker – she shaked out a lot of salt and sprinkled in a little black pepper,” Wyatt said. “And the south came east. And that’s what we saw.”

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