Justin Fairfax Compares Himself To Lynching Victims
Patrick Howley
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Democrat Virginia lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax is comparing his own case — in which two women accuse him of sexual assault over a period of approximately four years — to a modern-day lynching.
The Associated Press picks up Fairfax’s quote: “I’ve heard much about anti-lynching on the floor of this very Senate, where people were not given any due process whatsoever, and we rue that. And we talk about hundreds, at least 100 terror lynchings that have happened in the Commonwealth of Virginia under those very same auspices. And yet we stand here in a rush to judgment with nothing but accusations and no facts and we decide that we are willing to do the same thing.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orKpjRlQkAU
Dr. Vanessa Tyson, Stanford fellow and professor at Scripps College, is scheduling a meeting with Boston prosecutors with regard to her allegation of sexual assault against Virginia Democrat lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Fairfax was serving as the “body man” for John Edwards on the John Kerry campaign at the time.
“I spoke with Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins this afternoon. Dr. Tyson will meet with members of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s staff and law enforcement to detail her allegations of sexual assault. We are working to schedule a meeting,” stated Tyson’s attorney Debra Katz.
Tyson has “months left” before the 15-year statute of limitations runs out on the case, according to reporter Steven Nelson.
Big League Politics first reported on Dr. Tyson’s accusation, and now a second accuser, Meredith Watson, alleges that Fairfax raped her during their time together at Duke University.
Democrat congressman Bobby Scott of Virginia spoke with Dr. Tyson on text message about the allegation in 2017, but only days ago called for an immediate investigation into Fairfax’s conduct after second accuser Mz. Watson came forward.
Washington Post, the newspaper where ranking editors squashed the story of Dr. Vanessa Tyson’s sexual assault allegation against Justin Fairfax, is a big fan of Fairfax’s former Washington law firm WilmerHale. (RELATED: Free Speech Activists Gather At WilmerHale to Protest Pepe Meme Lawsuit Threats).
Fairfax worked at WilmerHale before becoming assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District.
Robert Mueller and his henchman Aaron Zebley went from the FBI to WilmerHale to the “Russia” special counsel investigation, which the Washington Post obviously adores, as evidenced by the headline “Mueller, several team members gave up million-dollar jobs to work on special counsel investigation.”
In fact, the Post even named WilmerHale its “#4 top workplace in DC” for 2018.
Meanwhile, second accuser Meredith Watson’s attorneys are clarifying facts about their client’s assertion that she was raped by Justin Fairfax at Duke University.
Fairfax allegedly cited Watson’s previous alleged rape by a Duke basketball player as the impetus for his alleged rape of Watson at a college party — because he figured she would stay quiet.
Here is what Watson’s attorney Nancy Erika Smith stated.
“We have heard from numerous press sources that in response to Meredith Watson revealing that Justin Fairfax raped her when she was a student at Duke, Mr. Fairfax has chosen to attack his victim again, now smearing her with the typical “she’s nuts” defense. He revealed that Ms. Watson was the victim of a prior rape. That is true. Ms. Watson was raped by a basketball player during her sophomore year at Duke. She went to the Dean, who provided no help and discouraged her from pursuing the claim further,” Smith stated.
“Ms. Watson also told friends, including Justin Fairfax. Mr. Fairfax then used this prior assault against Ms. Watson, as he explained to her during the only encounter she had with him after the rape. She left a campus party when he arrived, and he followed her out. She turned and asked: “Why did you do it?” Mr. Fairfax answered: “I knew that because of what happened to you last year, you’d be too afraid to say anything.” Mr. Fairfax actually used the prior rape of his “friend” against her when he chose to rape her in a premeditated way. Like he is smearing Dr. Vanessa Tyson, Mr. Fairfax is now smearing Ms. Watson. That’s shameful. The smears on victims of sexual assault have to stop. Why would any woman come forward with information about a powerful man knowing that he and his supporters will stop at nothing to smear and discredit them? Women come forward to support one another and to stop the culture of rape that is even more pervasive than we acknowledge,” Smith stated.
Less than a week after learning that Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post refused to run the story of Dr. Vanessa Tyson who accused Democratic Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of Virginia of sexual assault stemming from an incident at the 2004 Democratic National Committee, the paper confirmed to Big League Politics some of the editors who were behind the decision to quash the story.
“Specifically, it was the ranking editors in the newsroom who made the decision,” WaPo’s Vice President of Communications Kris Coratti told BLP via email. “Peter, it was a unanimous decision among the entire group of ranking editors not to publish the story because it didn’t meet our standards.”
Friday, we reported that WaPo columnist Theresa Vargas made the decision to spike the story, which was relayed to us by WaPo reporter Fenit Nirappil on a phone call. BLP has audio of the admission. Despite that, Coratti claimed the story was untrue, and demanded a correction.
When pressed, Coratti confirmed that editors Tracy Grant, Martin Baron, Cameron Barr, and Emilio Garcia-Ruiz were involved in the decision to quash the rape allegation story. She also confirmed that there were “many” other editors involved in the decision.
The official explanation from The Post is that the Fairfax sexual assault allegation story did not meet its editorial standards because the sexual assault allegations against Fairfax were not corroborated. But just four days after BLP broke the story of the sexual assault allegations, The New York Times was able to find five corroborating witnesses, all of whom Tyson told about the alleged sexual assault.
Compare that to the story of sexual misconduct allegations made by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh – a story which The Post gleefully published.
Executive Editor Marty Baron explained the decision to publish that story in a statement:
“Our reporting on Dr. Blasey Ford documented that in 2012 she told others of the alleged incident. Her husband learned of it during a couples therapy session, and he said he was told the name of Brett Kavanaugh at that time. Moreover, notes from therapy sessions that we reviewed showed that Dr. Blasey Ford spoke of a sexual assault by students “from an elitist boys’ school.” With that corroborating evidence, we proceeded to publish her account because it met our standards for publication.”
The allegations against Kavanaugh are far thinner, far less detailed, and do not possess nearly the level of corroboration as the sexual assault allegations against Fairfax. Remember, Blasey Ford could not remember the date, time, or place of Kavanaugh’s alleged misconduct. Tyson provided a detailed account of all of that information, and told her story to at least five people who confirmed to The Times that they had heard the story of Fairfax’s alleged sexual assault.
Still, Blasey Ford’s story was published, and Tyson’s was not.
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