On June 20, Media Matters for America president David Brock wrote to the president of Penguin Group (USA), demanding that Penguin “substantiate this maliciously grotesque rape claim” in Edward Klein's book The Truth About Hillary “and either confirm it publicly as legitimate, or else retract it as a fabrication and apologize to the public and the Clintons.”

Media Matters received a response from the assistant to Penguin Group (USA) president Susan Peterson Kennedy the next day:

Dear Mr. Brock,

Mrs. Kennedy is currently away from the office. I will bring your letter to her attention when she returns after July 4th.

Best wishes.

[Assistant to Susan Petersen Kennedy]

Also on June 21, PW Daily reported that Sentinel, the Penguin imprint that published the book, similarly avoided questions about Brock's letter: “A Sentinel spokesperson deferred comment, saying it was a Penguin matter, and a Penguin spokesperson did not immediately return a call by press time.”