[Ads-l] Peculiar use of "alleges" -- a self-alleged-ie?

[Joel Berson]

  The insertion of the allegedly lawsuit-protective "alleges" below is peculiar.  Who said or wrote "alleges", the news writer or Handler?  If Handler, as the passage reads, would she not *know* if she "could have been" one of the women who has come forward?  If the news-writer (Ryder), at best the "alleges" seems misplaced -- it should be in "women who have allegedly come forward"  or "women who have come forward alleging to have been sexually assaulted" (although "claiming" seems sufficient here).

"Chelsea Handler is not buying Bill Cosby's innocence. Why? Because she 
says she, too, had a sketchy close encounter with him 10 years ago.
When speaking with Esquire, Handler alleges she could have been one of the 20-plus women who have come forward claiming to have been sexual assaulted by the once-beloved comedian."

From  Yahoo News, by Taryn Ryder
Joel

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