VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Now, did she work here or in Chicago?

CAIN: The one that I am familiar with worked here in the Washington office. And I can’t even remember her name because she had not been a long-term employee. But I do remember the formal allegations she made in terms of sexual harassment.

I have never sexually harassed anybody in my life. And this formal charge was made. And then once it was made, I recused myself and turned it over to my general counsel and one of the other executives that worked for me, the lady in charge of human resources, and asked them to investigate. And they did.

The charge was filed. They did investigate. It was found to be baseless. And yes, there was some sort of settlement or termination, and I don’t even know what the contents of that was. Since it was found baseless, there was no big settlement or it would have had to have come to me.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. What was her job?

CAIN: She worked in one of our departments. It was — she was — she was a writer. She was in the communications area.

VAN SUSTEREN: How often on a, like, weekly basis did you come in contact with her?

CAIN: Not very much because…

VAN SUSTEREN: What’s “not very much”?

CAIN: Meaning I might see her in the office because her office was on the same floor as my office. But her boss was also there. I would go down and see her boss, and her boss would come and see me because he had an office on the same floor. So I would say that maybe if I’m in the office and not out speaking to the 560 states — because I spent a lot of time speaking to restaurant associations, state restaurant associations, so I was out of the office an awful a lot during that two-and-a-half years.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did she travel at all with you?

CAIN: No. She didn’t…

VAN SUSTEREN: Never?

CAIN: Never. No. No. Never did travel with me.

VAN SUSTEREN: About how old was she in the mid-’90s?

CAIN: I’m not real sure of her age. In the mid-’90s, I was about 55 years of age. I can’t recall. She was younger than I was, I do know that, but I really can’t recall.

VAN SUSTEREN: Twenties or thirties?

CAIN: It would have had to have been late 30s, early 40s, is just a guess. And that’s just a wild guess.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. How did you first hear that she was making a claim against you? Who told you?

CAIN: The Politico that published the article…

VAN SUSTEREN: No, going back into the ’90s. When you first — going back in the ’90s, not…

CAIN: Oh, OK.

VAN SUSTEREN: … the latest round, but…

CAIN: Got it. Got it. Got it. My general counsel came to my office and told me that she had made a claim. And I said, OK, what do we need to do?

VAN SUSTEREN: What did she — what did he say she claimed you did?

CAIN: He just used the term sexual harassment claim.

VAN SUSTEREN: You didn’t say what — like what?

CAIN: No.

VAN SUSTEREN: You didn’t say, like, Whoa, what did she say I did?

CAIN: No, I didn’t. I just said, What do you mean sexual harassment? She’s made some claims of sexual harassment. Now, he may have told me what incidents that she might have included in the claim, but all day today, as I’ve been getting beat up, I’ve been trying to recall what some of those things were and haven’t been able to recall a lot of them because that’s why they got dismissed. It was no basis because it was simple stuff. And I can’t remember all of…

VAN SUSTEREN: Do you remember any of it?

CAIN: I remember one that was in the claim, and that is, in my office — and this has come about just during the day as I have tried to recollect what happened back then. Now, let me first make sure — I recused myself and it was handled by two of my staff members. And they were — one of them is an officer level. So once it was resolved, I wasn’t involved, don’t recall what, quote, unquote, “settlement,” termination — I don’t know what it was.

But here’s the one incident that I recall as the day has gone on. She was in my office one day, and I made a gesture saying, Oh — and I was standing close to her. And I made a gesture, You’re the same height as my wife, and brought my hand — didn’t touch her — up to my chin and said, You’re the same height of my wife because my wife comes up to my chin, my wife of 43 years.

And that was put in there as something that made her uncomfortable as part of the sexual harassment charge.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did she say anything like, OK, that’s weird, or anything, or she’s — just that the next thing you noted, it was in the accusation?

CAIN: No. I can’t recall any comment that she made, positive or negative, after I made the gesture about her height, comparing it to my wife’s height.

VAN SUSTEREN: OK. So it was — so once the general counsel came to you and told you there was a claim, what was the next thing you did?

CAIN: I recused myself and told Peter…

VAN SUSTEREN: The general counsel.

CAIN: … the general counselor — to get together with Mary — I’m losing the last names because we’re talking 12 years ago — that for them to basically address it. I do recall that the lady making the charge had gotten an attorney. And I recused myself because I was the CEO and the charge was being leveled against me.

Peter kept me updated on the progress of this whole situation, and the thing that I remember most is when one day he came in and said, First, the charges were found baseless.

VAN SUSTEREN: By whom?

CAIN: I don’t recall by whom the charges were found baseless. I don’t know whether it was attorneys getting together. I don’t even remember if we had outside attorneys. I was busy traveling. I was busy running the association, so I wasn’t involved in a lot of the details about this. So I really can’t tell you how they were determined as being baseless.

VAN SUSTEREN: Did this woman accuser — did she say she had any witnesses? Not that she necessarily has to have any, but I’m curious. Did she say she had any?

CAIN: One of the things that I do recall my general counsel telling me that one of the reasons that the — it was no basis to it is because she couldn’t find any witnesses to corroborate her story.