I wonder if any member of Congress will introduce legislation to attempt to render null and void the NDAs from sexual misconduct settlements with members of Congress, so their survivors can talk if they wish.
A NDA doesn’t cover a criminal act, members of Congress need to understand Sexual Assault, is a crime and not protected by a NDA. Congressman threatening, bribing, forcing staff to provide sexual anything, are criminals
Why are tax payers dollars going to settle these sexual misconduct cases in the first place? As long as they are using tax payer dollars, “We the People” are entitled to know who the perps are.
.. I wonder if any member of Congress will ever be asked about Dennis Hastert? How about Mike Pence? Did he know?.. I’m a lawyer and think that NDAs for sexual harrassment or assault should be void on their face... The crux of the “NDA” is this: the hierarchy of power where men dominate at the top is thus maintained by these agreements. The gauntlet that these women are forced through is done precisely to discourage women (and men) from coming forward.#ENOUGH.. Require lobbyists (& registered foreign agents) to wear bodycams whenever they meet Members or their staff, post vid online. Also, to repeat what I said earlier, NDAs can always be subpoenaed by a grand jury or (more to the point) a congressional committee... Trump just said tonight all the lawsuits & sexual harassment info should be released and made public.. How about voiding all NDA’s that conceal crimes of violence like sexual assault??.. NDA’s, like other contracts, can be found null and void for a number of reasons including public health, public safety, and ‘matters of substantial public concern’. All of which might apply to these cases.
Beware of Running with the Al Franken Story — Consider Where That Leads Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/453899/al-franken-misconduct-conservatives-shouldnt-run?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=171121_Jolt&utm_term=Jolt
Don’t help blur the difference between bad manners and rape.
.. Because Franken is a high-handed moralizer of the Left, some Republicans and conservatives are happy to run with this, condemning Franken for it and another incident in which he attempted to kiss his co-star.
.. The first is that the difference between bad manners and rape will become blurred yet further. We live in an era when already a knee-touch can cause resignations.
.. Second, this opportunistic process risks embedding the now-prevailing narrative of third-wave feminism, which is that men are all rapists or proto-rapists and that women in our society tread a constant and violent minefield their entire lives when dealing with the male sex. This narrative — which for many young men and women is making relationships too complex to be worth having — needs to be pushed back against
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/453899/al-franken-misconduct-conservatives-shouldnt-run?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=171121_Jolt&utm_term=Jolt
Conyers Settlement Shines Light on How Congress Handles Sexual Harassment
Democrat denies allegations involving former female employee, says deal was reached to avoid litigation
.. The Conyers case sheds light on how sexual-harassment cases are handled for congressional employees. There is no central human-resources department for congressional staff. Instead, the Office of Compliance handles sexual-harassment cases, and requires people who want to report an allegation to do so within 180 days of the harassment and go through confidential mediation... According to the report, the woman alleged she was fired for refusing Mr. Conyers’s sexual advances and later reached a monetary settlement of about $27,000... Should a claim to the Office of Compliance result in a settlement, it is typically paid through an account in the U.S. Treasury. The Office of Compliance said last week that the government has paid more than $17 million in taxpayer money over the last 20 years to resolve claims of workplace violations, including sexual harassment, filed by employees of Congress... Rep. Jackie Speier (D., Calif.) questioned whether “some members are using their taxpayer-funded office budgets to make settlements under the guise of severance payments,”.. Last week, 1,500 former congressional staffers sent a letter to House and Senate leadership calling for reforms in the way staff sexual harassment allegations are handled.
Wes Goodman & Religious Conservatism, Inc.
The frightened teenager fled the room and told his mother and stepfather, who demanded action from the head of the organization hosting the conference.
“If we endorse these types of individuals, then it would seem our whole weekend together was nothing more than a charade,” the stepfather wrote to Tony Perkins, president of the Council for National Policy.
“Trust me . . . this will not be ignored nor swept aside,” replied Perkins
.. The Post has a photocopy of a 2015 letter that Perkins sent to Goodman, congratulating him on his therapy, but advising him that he ought not to seek political office until he has dealt with his homosexual behavior. Perkins said that he was “disappointed” by Goodman’s decision to run for state office, and kicked him off of the Council for National Policy.
.. Here’s the thing, though: Perkins and others who knew what Goodman had done in the hotel room let him continue his rise in conservative politics, knowing that he was a potential time bomb. How many social and religious conservative donors, activists, and voters would have supported an Evangelical rising star had they known that he was at least once willing to commit adultery, with a young man, and by sexually assaulting him?
.. So, Tony Perkins, the most powerful religious right figure in Washington, helped hide from other conservatives, as well as the public, that junior Republican politician Wesley Goodman, despite his façade as a Bible-believing family man, was an adulterous gay groper. Why?
.. Goodman was seen as a rising conservative star and a good networker who could help young people get jobs in conservative organizations
.. When asked whether Rosenberger had heard the rumors of Goodman’s past, Miller said they can’t chase down every rumor.
“Until someone comes forward with a substantial allegation — and when that occurs there is immediate action to make sure the proper protocols are followed,” Miller said.
.. Was it the case that young men propositioned lewdly by Goodman, who was well-connected in Republican politics, were afraid not so much of Goodman but his protectors?
.. Was Tony Perkins’s decision to stay silent as Wes Goodman’s political star rose in any way related to a desire to have a reliably conservative vote in the Ohio statehouse, even though he knew the man was a groper? I find it hard to believe that someone of Perkins’s national stature would worry so much about the Ohio statehouse, but given that Evangelicals (like Perkins) have established a reputation of overlooking credible accusations of sexual predation for the sake of supporting politicians who vote as they wish, the question remains.