A woman who complained about Herman Cain's behavior when he was president of the National Restaurant Association wants to be released from a confidentiality restriction so she can respond to his statements on the matter, her lawyer said Tuesday. Washington lawyer Joel P. Bennett said the woman disagreed with Mr. Cain's public comments about reports that two female employees of the restaurant trade group had accused him of sexual harassment in the late 1990s. 传世私服 传世私服 Mr. Cain said this week that he had been "falsely accused" and that the complaints were "baseless." "My client disputes Mr. Cain's claims that he never sexually harassed anyone, and that the claims had no merit," Mr. Bennett said. A second person, who had knowledge of the woman's complaint about Mr. Cain, said it entailed more than one incident "and continued over some period of time." Asked for comment, J.D. Gordon, a spokesman for the Cain campaign, said the candidate already had spoken about the allegations and "we have nothing to add." Mr. Cain, on Fox News Tuesday night, said he couldn't respond to Mr. Bennett's comments until the campaign consulted its lawyers. Mr. Bennett said he was calling on the restaurant association to release his client from a confidentiality provision attached to a 1999 financial agreement that resulted from her complaint. 传奇私服 He said he would contact the trade group Wednesday but first wanted to review the written agreement, which he hadn't seen since representing the woman in the matter 12 years ago. His comments were first reported by the Washington Post. At the National Restaurant Association, spokeswoman Sue Hensley said the group would "respond as appropriate" if Mr. Bennett requested a waiver. The sexual-harassment allegations, which were first reported Sunday night by the website Politico, have thrown the candidate off stride just as he has built an unexpected lead in several national polls of the race for the GOP presidential nomination. On Tuesday, Mr. Cain said he was the victim of a "smear campaign" intended to derail his campaign. "I believe I have a good sense for where you cross the line relative to sexual harassment," Mr. Cain said Monday night on the Fox News program "On the Record." "But you have to know the lady, the individual. 传奇sf And if you look at my entire 40-year career…I get to the National Restaurant Association—up to that point, not one accusation of sexual harassment, which meant that I did a pretty good job of knowing where to draw the line." The person with knowledge of the woman's complaints said that the woman hadn't wanted the matter to become public. "This was a private matter, resolved long ago. There was no interest in making this public," the person said. In states that vote earliest for the nomination, many of Mr. Cain's supporters, speaking before Tuesday's developments in the story, said they continued to back him. Rich Bolen, chairman of the Lexington County GOP in South Carolina, 传世私服传奇私服 said most Republicans dismiss the charges as a ploy to undermine the candidate. "He'll be like the phoenix rising out of the ashes, doing better than anybody expected," Mr. Bolen said. Rick Wilson, a Florida GOP strategist unaligned with any presidential campaign, said he believed that many grass-roots Republicans are rallying behind Mr. Cain. "They seem to have drawn the wagons around Herman right now," he said. "At the grass-roots level, I don't think this has changed the chemistry." Some Republicans said they backed Mr. Cain but were concerned about his wavering account of the allegations. Mr. Cain said on Monday that he was unaware of any payment by the trade group to women complaining of harassment, 传奇私服传奇私服 then later said he had recalled details and believed one woman received money. "He's got a tremendous amount of support in the tea-party movement and the grass roots," said Everett Wilkinson, chairman of the South Florida Tea Party. But "I think [the episode] is actually hurting him right now. The reason is not necessarily the allegation, but the way he's handling it. It kind of shows a lack of professionalism."