Perverted Lives of the Rich and Famous > Mom's for Liberty co-founder a little too liberal? SFO Tech CEO had sex slave for years

 

Florida school board recommends ouster of Moms for Liberty co-founder over Republican sex scandal

BY CURT ANDERSON

Updated 8:33 PM PST, December 12, 2023

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida school board voted on Tuesday to recommend the resignation of one of its members because she is embroiled in the fallout of a sexual assault investigation into her husband, the Republican Party state chairman.

The Sarasota County School Board cannot directly remove Bridget Ziegler from the panel but voted 4-1 Tuesday for a resolution requesting that she step down. The resolution was authored by board Chair Karen Rose, who said in an email that she is “shocked and deeply saddened” by the rape allegations involving Ziegler’s husband, Christian Ziegler, and the couple’s admissions about having a three-way sexual encounter previously with the accuser.

“I personally care about Bridget and her family and deeply regret the necessity for this course of action, but given the intense media scrutiny locally and nationally, her continued presence on the Board would cause irreparably harmful distractions to our critical mission,” Rose wrote.

Bridget Ziegler is co-founder of the conservative Moms for Liberty group. She has served on the board since 2014, when she was appointed by then-Gov. Rick Scott, and has previously been its chair. She voted against the resolution, saying she was “disappointed” but gave no indication she would step down. She remained on the board’s dais after the vote.

Disgraced tech CEO who allegedly kept assistant 

as ‘sex slave’ palled around with Kevin Spacey 

at glitzy summit

The San Francisco tech CEO accused of forcing his former assistant to sign a degrading “slave contract” palled around with disgraced actor Kevin Spacey at the same World Economic Forum meeting where the victim claims he abused her.

Tradeshift co-founder Christian Lanng, 45, hobnobbed with Spacey, 64, at the NGO’s glitzy annual summit in Davos, Switzerland in late January 2016, a photo shared on the Tradeshift Facebook showed.

“Tech fan Kevin Spacey with Tradeshift founder Christian Lanng at the Tradeshift Sanctuary in Davos,” the caption read.

The encounter also took place at the same gathering where Lanng’s accuser – identified only as Jane Doe – says the tech whiz assaulted her in public, according to a bombshell lawsuit filed Thursday.

Lanng was fired from the San Francisco-based cloud network in October for what the company described at the time as evidence of “gross misconduct on multiple grounds.”

Perverted Lives of the Rich and Famous > Hypocrisy easy to find in Congress; Russel Brand questioned by cops in 2014

..

South Carolina rep left family to live with mistress,

wife claims in divorce papers

By Katherine Donlevy, NYPost

Published Sep. 23, 2023, 8:30 p.m. ET

A South Carolina congressman who campaigns as an advocate for “traditional family values” carried out multiple affairs during his 34-year marriage, his wife claimed in divorce papers.

Melody Duncan accused GOP Rep. Jeff Duncan in Friday’s filing of abandoning his family to live with his mistress, who is reportedly a lobbyist in the Washington, D.C. area, according to court documents.

Duncan “admitted this adulterous relationship to many people, including [the couple’s three sons] and members of his staff,” the filing claims.

The 57-year-old conservative allegedly flaunted the affair in front of Melody’s face while purporting to carry on a healthy marriage in front of his constituents while on his re-election campaign trail.

Just last month, Duncan described Melody as a “supportive and loving wife” at his 12th annual Faith and Freedom BBQ — one of the largest annual Republican gatherings in South Carolina that typically draws thousands of people.

Is there a place in Eternity for liars?

Duncan “then left the next day and went directly to the home of his paramour, Liz Williams, in the Washington DC area, where [Melody] is informed and believes he continues to reside,” the findings allege.

Melody Duncan filed for divorce from Rep. Jeff Duncan, 

her husband of 34 years.

Congressman Jeff Duncan/Facebook

“[Melody] is informed and believes that [Duncan’s] extramarital relationship(s) is/are widely known in political circles in North Carolina and Washington DC.”

Since then, Duncan allegedly started rumors that his 1988 marriage to Melody was plagued with lovelessness in an effort “to justify the hypocrisy of his public statements and his private actions.”

Duncan allegedly admitted his extramarital affair with Williams to Melody, though the scorned spouse believes there was at least one other woman.

According to the US House’s lobbying disclosure page, there’s a registered lobbying firm called Liz Williams and Co., with seven clients, including Delta Air Lines.

The politician, who has served the state’s 3rd Congressional District since 2011, touts himself as a protector of the nuclear family.

“As a life-long social conservative, I am a strong advocate for life and traditional family values,” he states on his government page.

“The most basic component of our society is the family. Now more than ever, it is imperative that we protect the values that America was founded upon and have made our country great.”

Neither lawyers for Melody nor representatives for Duncan immediately responded to The Post’s request for comment.

The divorce was first reported by the South Carolina Index-Journal.

Russell Brand was grilled by police in 2014 over claims

he sexually assaulted masseuse

By Ronny Reyes, NYPost

Published Sep. 24, 2023, 12:00 p.m. ET

Russell Brand was questioned by police over claims of sexual assault back in 2014, when a masseuse alleged he groped her and made her feel “like a prostitute,” according to a new report.

The embattled British comedian, who is being investigated for allegedly raping four women, had his first known such run in with police nine years ago when an English masseuse said he attacked her at mansion in Oxfordshire, The Sun on Sunday reported.

The masseuse, who was not publicly identified, said she was hired to give Brand a birthday massage valued at more than $600 on June 7, 2014.

When she led him to his massage table at a bathroom suite, the masseuse claimed Brand began touching her “in a sexual way” for about 40 minutes before he was kicked out of the mansion, according to the report.

Russell Brand was accused of raping four women between 2006 and 2013, with more allegations of sexual assault and harassment resurfacing against the British comedian.

News Licensing / MEGA

She said felt she was treated “like a prostitute,” receiving payment for the massage even though she never gave him one, the Sun reported.

The traumatized woman said she called Thames Valley Police, who went on to grill Brand over the allegations, which he denied, describing the encounter as “friendly but awkward,” according to the report.

Brand also claimed that CCTV footage from the property supported his version of the story that he was not kicked out of the mansion, the Sun said.

The following month, Thames Valley Police informed the masseuse and Brand that they were not pursuing the case, the Sun reported.

Outraged by the police’s decision, the masseuse sought to have the case reviewed by the Independent Office for Police Misconduct.

The Independent Office for Police Misconduct and the Thames Valley Police Department did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment Sunday.

Russell Brand sexual assault allegations

Russell Brand was accused of raping, sexually assaulting and abusing four women over the course of seven years from 2006 to 2013.

One woman, identified as “Nadia,” alleged the “Get Him To the Greek” star raped her against the wall of his Los Angeles home in 2012 and that she was treated at a rape crisis center the same day, according to medical records cited by news outlets.

Another accuser, who was 16 at the time and is known only by the pseudonym “Alice”, alleged the then-31-year-old called her “the child” and assaulted her during their “emotionally abusive and controlling” three-month relationship, according to the report.

A woman identified as “Phoebe” claimed he sexually assaulted her at his property in West Hollywood after they met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, according to the Times of London. Brand allegedly trapped her in a bedroom and chased her around before pinning her down and assaulting her. 

The star’s ex-girlfriend Jordan Martin made similar accusations in her self-published 2014 book “kNot: Entanglement with a Celebrity.” She claims he sexually assaulted her at the Lowry Hotel in Manchester, England, after becoming angry that she had spoken to an ex-boyfriend in 2007.

Pop star Dannii Minogue angrily labeled Russell Brand a “vile predator” as far back as 2006 — accusing him of creeping her out by perving over her “fabulous breasts” and refusing to “take no for an answer.”

Brand denied the allegations in a video on YouTube and X, formerly Twitter, alerting fans to “serious criminal” allegations that he said would be made against him.

“Amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks, are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute,” Branded shared. “The relationships I had were absolutely, always consensual.”

While the investigation proceeds, YouTube has suspended Brand from making money on the video streaming site, his pub “Crown Inn,” located in Pishill, Britain, has been temporarily shut down and BBC has formally launched a review into the comedian’s time at the network.

Milo Yiannopoulos - Darling of Alt-Right Movement Throws Himself Under the Bus

Milo Yiannopoulos resigns from Breitbart News amid pedophilia comments backlash

Milo Yiannopoulos. © Drew Angerer / Getty Images / AFP

Senior Breitbart editor and alt-right figure Milo Yiannopoulos has resigned from Breitbart News following a scathing backlash after he apparently defended pedophilia.

Yiannopoulos issued a statement announcing his departure from the conservative news organisation thanking the company for the freedom to “carry conservative and libertarian ideas.”  He also revealed plans for a new media venture during a press conference he held in New York.

“I would be wrong to allow my poor choice of words to distract from my colleagues reporting, so today I am resigning from Breitbart, effective immediately. This decision is mine alone.”

Mr Yiannopoulos, a vocal Donald Trump supporter who rose to fame for his far-right views, appeared to endorse sexual relationships between “younger boys and older men” in an excerpt from The Drunken Peasants podcast which aired a year ago.

He said in footage broadcast online that he defines paedophiles as people who are sexually attracted to children who have yet to hit puberty. He adds that he believes some teenagers under the age of 16 are able to consent to sexual activity.

At one point he refers to the possibility of relationships between 13-year-olds and 25 or 28-years-olds, claiming “these things do happen, perfectly consensually”.  

He later said the podcast was selectively edited, and parts where he said the current age of consent is "about right" were removed.

Somewhere, he admitted to having a relationship with a priest when he was 13 or 14. That's where the 'coming of age' comment came from.  Yiannopolous still doesn't see the realtionship as child sex abuse. 

Thy bus runneth over

The “alt-right” figurehead, who was permanently banned from Twitter in July after claims he helped lead the racist and sexist abuse of Ghostbusters actor Leslie Jones, had his book deal with publisher Simon & Schuster pulled in the wake of the remarks. 

He was also dropped from speaking at the prestigious Conservative Political Action (CPAC) conference, which will feature President Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence, in Maryland next week.

Sources from Breitbart told Fox Business late on Monday that they were also considering dismissing him from the publication that helped launch his career.

There was reportedly a fierce internal debate about whether to keep him on, but a source said the decision was ultimately one related to branding, with senior executives debating how “damaging his comments are to the Breitbart brand”.

“Breitbart already has advertising issues regarding its association with the Alt-Right, and this doesn’t help the business side,” said the source.

On top of this, a senior editor at the publication told Fox Business “at least half a dozen” employees were prepared to leave the company if Mr Yiannopoulos stayed.

Mr Yiannopoulos ended his statement, which was tweeted by a journalist at the New York Times: “Breitbart News has stood by me when others caved. They have allowed me to carry conservative and libertarian ideas to communities that would otherwise never have heard them. They have been a significant factor in my success. I’m grateful for that freedom and for the friendships I forged there.

"When your friends have done right by you. you do right by them. For me, now, that means stepping aside so my colleagues at Breitbart can get back to the great work they do."

Breitbart said in a statement released shortly afterwards: "Milo Yiannopoulos’s bold voice has sparked much-needed debate on important cultural topics confronting universities, the LGBTQ community, the press, and the tech industry."

"Milo notified us this morning of his decision to resign as editor of Breitbart Tech and we accepted his resignation.”

In a press conference following his resignation, Mr Yiannopoulos said there were two comments in the podcast that did not accurately reflect his views, but suggested the rest did.

He said the scandal has been a "politically motivated witch hunt" and accused people of waiting until the "most damaging moment" to highlight footage that has been in the public domain for a year.

He added that he had not owned up to the comments before they were reported on by the press because he did not even remember making them.

South Dakota Lawmakers - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Pornography Declared Health Crisis by South Dakota

Good! The third state to realize the extraordinary harm the easy availability of pornography is doing to children. It is responsible, I believe, for the growing Culture of Rape and for the increasing numbers of children being sexually assaulted by other children. Something must be done to make pornography 100% inaccessible by children.

Senators in South Dakota have passed a resolution declaring pornography a public health crisis, joining Virginia and Utah among that states stepping up efforts to highlight the dangers of x-rated adult material.

According to resolution SCR4, passed in South Dakota, porn leads to risky sexual activity, low-self esteem and sometimes eating disorders.

Advances in technology are exposing young children to pornography “at an alarming rate,” and pornography is “linked to a lessening desire in young persons to marry,” the resolution states.

Republican Senator Jenna Netherton from Sioux Falls sponsored the resolution along with 51 other Republicans, stating that pornography increasingly causes harm to “men, women and children,” thanks to its availability on the internet and smartphones.

The Republican Party’s 2016 Party Platform also targeted pornography as a “public health crisis” that is “destroying the lives of millions.”  

An ugly subject better dealt with quietly and locally

S.D. lawmakers file bill barring transgender students from shower, locker rooms

Dana Ferguson

PIERRE -- A pair of South Dakota lawmakers filed a bill Wednesday aimed at barring transgender students from locker rooms, shower rooms and changing changing rooms that don't match their biological sex at birth.

The measure, which is similar to a bill vetoed by Gov. Dennis Daugaard in 2016, would allow separate accommodations for transgender students who don't wish to use facilities that don't correspond with their gender identity. The 2016 bill would have expanded that ban to include restrooms.

Sen. Lance Russell, R-Hot Springs, and Rep. Thomas Brunner, R-Nisland, sponsored the measure, which had not yet been assigned to a committee Wednesday afternoon.

Russell said he brought the measure in hopes of addressing lingering concerns about privacy in public school locker room, shower room and changing facilities and to provide additional support to small school districts.

“I believe the public was bewildered by the veto last year and that the Legislature’s failure to protect the school districts in their efforts to protect all of the students,” Russell said.

The legislation was drafted by the conservative advocacy group Family Heritage Alliance Action, that also backed the 2016 bill aimed at restricting access to bathrooms for transgender students. The group's executive director, Dale Barstcher, said he was hopeful that the new language would help it gain traction in the Legislature and with the governor.

Opponents of the bill including civil rights advocates and allies of the LGBT community said they would fight the bill at the Capitol as they did with House Bill 1008.

Libby Skarin, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota, said the measure was discriminatory and could isolate transgender students.

“Transgender children are already some of the most vulnerable in our state, so it’s especially shameful that some South Dakota politicians are once again focused on singling them out for discrimination," Skarin said in a statement. "All this bill does is send the message that it’s okay for their peers – and state politicians – to target and bully transgender children."

The Sioux Falls School Board, as well as state public education groups, have opposed the measure and asked last year that the Legislature not take it up. Sioux Falls School Board President Todd Thoelke said that the district hasn't had any problems dealing with transgender students' needs on a case-by-case basis.

Daugaard earlier this year said he viewed similar bills as a "solution in search of a problem" and said situations of bathroom or locker room use in schools were best dealt with at the local level.

Bad man, messing with two interns while engaged to someone else

South Dakota Lawmaker Quits Over Sexual Contact With Interns

By JAMES NORD, ASSOCIATED PRESS

 In this Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017 photo, Republican Rep. Mathew Wollmann sits on the House floor in Pierre, S.D. The House decided to investigate Wollmann, who told reporters that he had sexual contact with interns during the past two legislative sessions. (AP Photo/James Nord)

A South Dakota legislator who admitted having sexual contact with two interns resigned on Monday, saying he regretted his actions during the past two legislative sessions.

Republican Rep. Mathew Wollmann, 26, said last week that both interns were over age 21 and that the contact during the 2015 and 2016 legislative sessions was consensual. But his colleagues voted to set up a committee to investigate his actions, and they were scheduled to meet Tuesday.

Wollmann announced his resignation in a letter first reported by the Mitchell Daily Republic newspaper. The former Marine didn't immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press, but the Legislative Research Council provided a copy of his letter.

The meeting on Wollmann's conduct is still planned, said Republican Rep. Timothy Johns, chairman of the House Select Committee on Discipline and Expulsion.

In South Dakota, legislative interns are college students, some 21 or older. Legislative rules don't explicitly ban sexual contact or relationships between lawmakers and interns, although they do prohibit sexual harassment and call on lawmakers to maintain "the highest of moral and ethical standards."

Wollmann, from the eastern South Dakota city of Madison, first won the seat in 2014. In the letter, Wollmann expressed his regret, writing that he hoped to return to the Legislature in the future.

"I have nothing but the greatest respect for those that I have grown so close to these past two years, and even in these early days of the 92nd legislative session," Wollmann wrote. "Those that read this should know that it is my wrongdoing that has put this institution in a sour light. Those responsible for me have displayed nothing but the highest honor for this establishment."

House Majority Leader Lee Qualm, House Speaker Mark Mickelson and Minority Leader Spencer Hawley said in a statement that Wollmann decided "this was best for him, his fiance, his family and the young ladies involved."

"Every legislator has an obligation to refrain from behavior unbecoming to the Legislature and inconsistent with maintaining the public's trust," the House leaders said.

Republican Gov. Dennis Daugaard said in a statement that he thinks Wollmann made the right decision. Daugaard said he will act quickly to name a replacement.

Wollmann's public admission came shortly after a legislative committee voted down a new rule to explicitly bar legislators from sexual contact with interns and pages. One lawmaker who spoke against the change said he felt the current rules were sufficient.

The House leaders said they will meet with lawmakers, interns and staff to discuss potential improvements that could be made to legislator and employee training and any updates to legislative rules. Hawley told the AP that he supports discussing new rules.

Wollmann is the second South Dakota lawmaker in roughly a decade to be investigated by lawmakers for alleged misconduct involving interns or pages. In 2007, the state Senate censured Democrat Dan Sutton after he was accused of fondling an 18-year-old page when they shared a motel room during the 2006 legislative session. Sutton denied the allegation and was re-elected.

Prager: In Defense of Pro-Trump Christians, Sort of

There is no connection between marital

fidelity and fidelity to country

Dennis Prager 

There are many good conservatives who are Never-Trumpers, and there are many good conservatives who will vote for Donald Trump. Eight months ago, I warned that conservatives must resist gratuitous hatred or they will destroy themselves more effectively than the left ever could on its own.

I used the term "gratuitous hatred" because it is the term Jews and Judaism use to describe the reason for one of the greatest calamities of Jewish history: the destruction of the Second Temple and the second Jewish state. It wasn't the Romans who Jewish tradition blames; it was the Jews themselves -- for hating one another for no good reason.

When I read the Boston Globe column "How the Religious Right Embraced Donald Trump and Lost its Moral Authority" by Jeff Jacoby, a man whose work I have long respected, gratuitous hatred came to mind. Just as there are pro-Trump people who have expressed contempt for anti-Trump people since the very beginning -- as an early anti-Trumper I can personally attest to this (even though I wrote repeatedly that if Trump wins the nomination, I would vote for him) -- some Never-Trump people now dismiss the decency and moral credibility of conservatives voting for Trump.

In light of this, I would like to respond to Jacoby and the editorial against Trump that was published last week in the important evangelical journal World.

Jacoby's piece consisted of contained attacks on the moral credibility and decency of pro-Trump Christians. He said: "Religious conservatives shed their principles, and thereby dismantled their influence. ... Buried under the post-election wreckage will be the moral credibility of the religious right. ... (Their) hypocrisy ... is orders of magnitude worse than the customary flip-flopping and sail-trimming of a presidential campaign." Unlike Jacoby, World went out of its way to be gracious to those Christians still voting for Trump, saying, "We also value those who still plan to vote for Trump so as to vote for the Supreme Court."

But the private Trump comments on groping women pushed World to call for Trump to resign and for Christians to withdraw their support. It said, "If a person is unfaithful to his spouse, he's also likely to be unfaithful to his country."

I have heard this argument about the alleged connection between marital infidelity and infidelity to one's country my whole life. And it has been false my whole life -- as well as throughout history. There is no connection between marital fidelity and fidelity to country. Were the unfaithful Lyndon B. Johnson and John F. Kennedy also unfaithful to America?

Indeed, some of the world's greatest leaders have been unfaithful to their wives. And some of the worst have been faithful.

I wish there were a connection. Choices for leaders would then be much simpler. The only married candidates we would vote for are those we believe had never been unfaithful to their spouses.

Jacoby and World must think God was pretty flawed in voting for King David. King David did much worse than privately boasting about women allowing him to grope them. He had a man killed so his adultery with the man's wife would not be exposed. And while God was angry with David and punished him, God still maintained David as king and gave him a central role in Jewish history. If God shouldn't be ashamed for supporting King David, Christians shouldn't be ashamed for supporting Donald Trump, given the far more corrupt and destructive alternative.

Mr Prager had me until now. However, there is little comparison between King David and Donald Trump. David was a man after God's own heart who went astray out of lust and repented intensely. Donald Trump is not a man after God's own heart, he is a 2 Timothy 3 man, and one all Christians should turn away from as Paul directed.

The unfaithful argument does not do honor to those fine people who make the argument because telling the truth is also a divine command.

World wrote, "To quote (Albert) Mohler (president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary), we should not 'allow a national disgrace to become the Great Evangelical Embarrassment.'" That means that World is for allowing another national disgrace -- Hillary Clinton -- to become president. Why wouldn't that be a "Great Evangelical Embarrassment"?

"Another national disgrace"? Mr Prager has come to believe his own hype and the disgraceful exhibition of name-calling and character assassination that the Republicans have been ruthlessly hammering on for several years. Hillary is not the most wonderful person to run for President, but there are several presidents who's character has been far worse than hers, Johnson, Nixon, and her own husband just to name 3. I would vote for Michelle Obama in a heartbeat before voting for Hillary, but the US has had worse. Yes, even worse than Trump.

It's unfortunate that Prager uses such language for it makes it almost impossible for Trump supporters to lose gracefully and that will ensure a country that is almost impossible to rule with any elegance. Trump supporter's intransigence is liable to be the cause for a President Clinton to be the fulfillment of all the fears they express like gun control.

But they will respond that they are not for Clinton either.

This is the only argument of anti-Trump conservatives that drives me crazy -- this vociferous denial that they are not for Clinton. Of course they aren't for Clinton intellectually, emotionally or morally. But the voting booth does not assess intellect, emotions or morals; it only assesses votes. So no matter how much a Republican loathes Clinton, in depriving Trump of Republican votes, anti-Trump Republicans are helping Clinton win the presidency.

It didn't have to be this way. It was the complete lack of discernment in the character of Trump that allowed him to get the nomination in the first place. Had Mr Prager and others been more critical of Trump rather than hammering away at Hillary's emails, there might actually have been a reasonable alternative to Hillary.

In sum, a religious conservative can honorably support Trump just as honorable Christians supported Joseph Stalin against Adolf Hitler (and for the sake of those who enjoy mischaracterizing conservatives, I am, of course, not implying that Trump is Stalin, or that Clinton is Hitler -- only that if Christians could ally themselves with Stalin to defeat a more dangerous foe, Christians could support Trump to defeat Clinton).

Surely, there is something seriously wrong with the 2-party system in the USA. When it leaves Christians with no apparent choice but to support a man who exemplifies the culture of rape in America, it's time to reorganize the way Americans do politics.

There is no defense for Donald Trump's comments or alleged sexual misbehavior. But in terms of damage to America, there is no comparison between what he has said and allegedly done and what she has done and advocates for the future. Is acting on that realization un-Christian?

I completely disagree with this statement. The worst problem in America today is not Hillary, it is not debt, the economy, Mexicans, ISIS, Islam or anything else Trump is railing against. It isn't even abortion although about a million babies are destroyed annually even thought here has been 20 years (I think) of Republican presidents and more of Republican lawmakers since Roe v Wade.
The worst problem an America today is sex abuse of women and especially children. 3/4 of a million children are sexually abused every year in America, and that is a conservative estimate. Unlike aborted babies, very few of them get to go straight to Heaven. Most have to live their lives out in extremely difficult circumstances. Very few sexually abused children ever completely recover, and far too many struggle with horrible, debilitating, mental and emotional problems the rest of their lives. 

This is the worst problem in America as it is the worst problem in the whole world where about 35 million children suffer sexual abuse every year. And since most suffer repeated abuse the actual number of child sexual abuses could be, and probably is in the billions annually. 

So ask me, do I care about somebody's emails? Do I care about 4 dead bodies in Benghazi? If that's all you can wrap your mind around, then your priorities are severely screwed up! Just saying...

Why The New Child Rape Case Filed Against Donald Trump Should Not Be Ignored

I have been pretty good at ignoring Donald Trump, for the most part, but publishing a blog on child sex abuse I am obligated to report this story. I do so with nausea growing in my stomach. As I have mentioned before, this Presidential election campaign is a reality show and I mostly hate reality TV. But this, and other stories, have elevated this farce well beyond reality TV. It can now be called
a macabre, Machiavellian Theater of the Absurd.

Mainstream media will not touch this story with a ten-foot pole. The most credible accounts I can find are from RT (Russia Today) with its anti-American bias, and from Huffington Post with its liberal, feminist bias. Since a woman's viewpoint on this story is invaluable, and since the Huffington Post account is extremely well-written by a very qualified person, I am going with that.

This is not a statement that I believe the accusations, there are some troublesome problems with them, only that they are credible enough to warrant revealing.

Lisa Bloom, Legal analyst for NBC News and Avvo, attorney and bestselling author


MIKE SEGAR / REUTERS

An anonymous “Jane Doe” filed a federal lawsuit against GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump last week, accusing him of raping her in 1994 when she was thirteen years old. The mainstream media ignored the filing.

If the Bill Cosby case has taught us anything, it is to not disregard rape cases against famous men. Serious journalists have publicly apologized for turning a blind eye to the Cosby accusers for over a decade, notwithstanding the large number of women who had come forward with credible claims. And now history is repeating itself.

In covering a story, a media outlet is not finding guilt. It is simply reporting the news that a lawsuit has been filed against Mr. Trump, and ideally putting the complaint in context. Unproven allegations are just that - unproven, and should be identified that way. (Mr. Trump’s lawyer says the charges are “categorically untrue, completely fabricated and politically motivated.”) Proof comes later, at trial. But the November election will come well before any trial. And while Mr. Trump is presumed innocent, we are permitted - no, we are obligated — to analyze the case’s viability now.

No outsider can say whether Mr. Trump is innocent or guilty of these new rape charges. But we can look at his record, analyze the court filings here, and make a determination as to credibility - whether the allegations are believable enough for us to take them seriously and investigate them, keeping in mind his denial and reporting new facts as they develop.

I have done that. And the answer is a clear “yes.” These allegations are credible. They ought not be ignored. Mainstream media, I’m looking at you.

1. Consider the Context: Mr. Trump’s Overt, Even Proud Misogyny

The rape case must be viewed through the lens of Mr. Trump’s current, longstanding and well documented contempt for women. Men who objectify women are more likely to become perpetrators of sexual violence, just as one with a long history of overtly racist comments is more likely to commit a hate crime.

Mr. Trump has relished calling women “dogs,” “slobs” and “pigs,” and cyberstalked and derided journalist Megyn Kelly for having the temerity to ask him to defend his own words. He threw out the most misogynist of attacks, attempting to undermine her professionalism by accusing her of menstruating. He’s cruelly ridiculed the appearance of a female opponent (Carly Fiorina) and an opponent’s wife (Heidi Cruz). His campaign even openly acknowledged that it disqualified all women for consideration as his vice-president.

Mr. Trump has a long history of debasing women he’s worked with, crossing the line on a regular basis. He’s taken lifelong joy in objectifying women, including his proclamation: “Women, you have to treat ‘em like shit.”

This cannot be ignored. Decades of abusive language does not make him a rapist. But it does show us who the man is: a callous, meanspirited misogynist who no sane person would leave alone with her daughter. As Dr. Maya Angelou said, “When someone shows you who they really are, believe them.”

2. More context: two prior sexual assault court claims have been made against Mr. Trump

But Mr. Trump has been accused of worse than just misogynist language. Two prior women have accused Mr. Trump, in court documents, of actual or attempted sexual assault. (Mr. Trump denies all the allegations.)

Under oath, Ivana Trump accused Mr. Trump of a violent rape.

First was Ivana Trump, Donald Trump’s first wife, who said under oath in a 1989 deposition that he had violently attacked her, ripped out her hair and forcibly penetrated her without her consent. According to the Daily Beast, she claims he was wildly angry that she’d referred him to a cosmetic surgeon who had botched a “scalp reduction” job (to cover a bald spot) and caused pain in his scalp - hence the vindictive yanking on her hair. At the time Ms. Trump said she felt “violated” by the alleged “rape.”

A few years later, after their divorce was settled, Ms. Trump claimed that she did not mean the word “rape” in a “literal or criminal” sense.

Note: virtually every settlement of a case involving a high profile person paying money to a former spouse - or anyone - requires the person receiving the money to agree in writing to ironclad nondisparagement and confidentiality. In plain English: you promise to be quiet and not say anything bad about the party paying you money. This has been the case in hundreds of settlement agreements I have worked on over the years. Ms. Trump was almost certainly contractually prohibited after she signed from saying anything negative about Mr. Trump. And it is also common to attempt to “cure” prior negative statements with new agreed-to language - like, I didn’t mean it literally. (You didn’t mean forcible penetration literally?)

A business acquaintance accused Mr. Trump of sexual harassment and “attempted rape”.

A second woman accused Donald Trump of sexual assault, in 1997. According to The Guardian, then thirty-four year old Jill Harth alleged in a federal lawsuit that Trump violated her “physical and mental integrity” when he touched her intimately without consent after her husband went into business with him, leaving her “emotionally devastated [and] distraught.” The lawsuit called the multiple acts “attempted rape.” Shortly thereafter she voluntarily withdrew the case when a parallel suit against Mr. Trump brought by her husband was settled. When The Guardian reached the woman in 2016 to ask whether she stood by her sexual assault allegations, she responded, “yes.”

In a court filing, according to a report, Ms. Harth alleged that while she and her husband were trying to do a business deal with Mr. Trump regarding a beauty pageant, he repeatedly propositioned her for sex and groped her, culminating in this frightening alleged incident:

Trump forcefully removed (Harth) from public areas of Mar-A-Lago in Florida and forced (her) into a bedroom belonging to defendant’s daughter Ivanka, wherein (Trump) forcibly kissed, fondled, and restrained (her) from leaving, against (her) will and despite her protests.” In the court document, she said that Trump bragged that he ”would be the best lover you ever have.”

Recently Donald Trump issued a statement that women’s claims of sexual harassment, documented in a lengthy New York Times investigation which included Ms. Harth’s lawsuit, were “made up.”

Jill Harth responded angrily on Twitter last week: “My part was true. I didn’t talk. As usual you opened your big mouth.”

In other words, she is standing by her story.

3. The new Jane Doe child rape claim against Mr. Trump is consistent with verifiable facts about Mr. Trump and his friend Jeffrey Epstein, and has a powerful witness statement attached to it.

A third woman accused Mr. Trump of rape very recently. According to the Daily Mail, a woman filed an April 2016 lawsuit claiming that when she was thirteen years old she was held as a sex slave to Mr. Trump and his friend Jeffrey Epstein. The woman claimed to have a witness, “Tiffany Doe,” to the incidents. She filed the case in pro per, that is, without the assistance of a lawyer.

The case was dismissed by the court for technical filing errors. She then obtained a lawyer and the case was modified and refiled in New York federal court, against Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein.

Read:  Prince Andrew One of the Celebrities Named in Sexual Abuse of Underage Girls

I’ve carefully reviewed this federal complaint. It is now much stronger than the one she filed on her own, which makes sense because she now has an experienced litigator representing her. Jane Doe says that as a thirteen year old, she was enticed to attend parties at the home of Jeffrey Epstein with the promise of money modeling jobs. Mr. Epstein is a notorious  “billionaire pedophile” who is now a Level 3 registered sex offender - the most dangerous kind, “a threat to public safety” — after being convicted of misconduct with another underage girl.

Jane Doe says that Mr. Trump “initiated sexual contact” with her on four occasions in 1994. Since she was thirteen at the time, consent is not an issue. If Mr. Trump had any type sexual contact with her in 1994, it was a crime.

On the fourth incident, she says Mr. Trump tied her to a bed and forcibly raped her, in a “savage sexual attack,” while she pleaded with him to stop. She says Mr. Trump violently struck her in the face. She says that afterward, if she ever revealed what he had done, Mr. Trump threatened that she and her family would be “physically harmed if not killed.” She says she has been in fear of him ever since.

New York’s five year statute of limitations on this claim - the legal deadline for filing — has long since run. However, Jane Doe’s attorney, Thomas Meagher, argues in his court filing that because she was threatened by Mr. Trump, she has been under duress all this time, and therefore she should be permitted additional time to come forward. Legally, this is calling “tolling” - stopping the clock, allowing more time to file the case. As a result, the complaint alleges, Jane Doe did not have “freedom of will to institute suit earlier in time.” He cites two New York cases which I have read and which do support tolling

Two unusual documents are attached to Jane Doe’s complaints - sworn declarations attesting to the facts. The first is from Jane Doe herself, telling her horrific story, including the allegation that Jeffrey Epstein also raped her and threatened her into silence, and this stunner:

Defendant Epstein then attempted to strike me about the head with his closed fists while he angrily screamed at me that he, Defendant Epstein, should have been the one who took my virginity, not Defendant Trump . . .

And this one:

Defendant Trump stated that I shouldn’t ever say anything if I didn’t want to disappear like Maria, a 12-year-old female that was forced to be involved in the third incident with Defendant Trump and that I had not seen since that third incident, and that he was capable of having my whole family killed.

The second declaration is even more astonishing, because it is signed by “Tiffany Doe”, Mr. Epstein’s “party planner” from 1991-2000. Tiffany Doe says that her duties were “to get attractive adolescent women to attend these parties.” (Adolescents are, legally, children.

Tiffany Doe says that she recruited Jane Doe at the Port Authority in New York, persuaded her to attend Mr. Epstein’s parties, and actually witnessed the sexual assaults on Jane Doe:

I personally witnessed the Plaintiff being forced to perform various sexual acts with Donald J. Trump and Mr. Epstein. Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein were advised that she was 13 years old.

It is exceedingly rare for a sexual assault victim to have a witness. But Tiffany Doe says:

I personally witnessed four sexual encounters that the Plaintiff was forced to have with Mr. Trump during this period, including the fourth of these encounters where Mr. Trump forcibly raped her despite her pleas to stop.

Tiffany Doe corroborates, based on her own personal observations, just about everything in Jane Doe’s complaint: that twelve year old Maria was involved in a sex act with Mr. Trump, that Mr. Trump threatened the life of Jane Doe if she ever revealed what happened, and that she would “disappear” like Maria if she did.

Tiffany Doe herself says that she is in mortal fear of Mr. Trump to this day:

I am coming forward to swear to the truthfulness of the physical and sexual abuse that I personally witnessed of minor females at the hands of Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein . . . I swear to these facts under the penalty for perjury even though I fully understand that the life of myself and my family is now in grave danger.

Given all this, and based on the record thus far, Jane Doe’s claims appear credible. Mr. Epstein’s own sexual crimes and parties with underage girls are well documented, as is Mr. Trump’s relationship with him two decades ago in New York City. Mr. Trump told a reporter a few years ago: “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it, Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

Powerfully, Jane Doe appears to have an eyewitness to all aspects of her claim, a witness who appears to have put herself in substantial danger by coming forward, because at a minimum Mr. Epstein knows her true identity.

Jane Doe has not granted any interviews, and we don’t know anything about her background, or Tiffany Doe’s, or the details of their stories. Much information needs to be revealed to fully assess this case. Perhaps they will be discredited on cross-examination. Perhaps they will recant. But if we’re going to speculate in that direction, we should speculate in the other direction as well. Perhaps Jane Doe and her lawyer will have more evidence and witnesses to corroborate her claim. Perhaps witnesses from Mr. Epstein’s notorious parties will come forward. We just can’t know any of that at this point.

But based on what we do know now, Jane Doe’s claims fall squarely into the long, ugly context of Mr. Trump’s life of misogyny, are consistent with prior sexual misconduct claims, are backed up by an eyewitness, and thus should be taken seriously. Her claims merit sober consideration and investigation.

We live in a world where wealthy, powerful men often use and abuse women and girls. While these allegations may shock some, as a lawyer who represents women in sexual abuse cases every day, I can tell you that sadly, they are common, as is an accuser’s desire to remain anonymous, and her terror in coming forward.

What do you call a nation that refuses to even look at sexual assault claims against a man seeking to lead the free world?

Rape culture.

We ignore the voices of women at our peril.

Follow Lisa Bloom on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LisaBloom

Family Values Crusader - Political Suicide Bomber - Suspends Election Campaign

I'm so tired of 'family values' campaigners who are complete hypocrites. It completely undermines any attempt to restore family values to America. Durham is basically a political suicide bomber.

THE GREENVILLE GAZETTE:

SPONSOR OF ANTI-LGBT “BATHROOM BILL” CAUGHT SEXUALLY HARASSING

34 WOMEN – EXPELLED FROM CAPITOL

Smack in the middle of one of the most heated and controversial Presidential election cycles in recent history comes yet another scandal for the Republican party. It seems that one more prominent “GOP” senator has added his name to the eternally expanding list of “family values” champions who have let their pants (and their constituents) down at a crucial moment in their careers.



Tennessee state Representative Jeremy Durham has added his name to the list of scandal shamed “conservatives” who have campaigned publicly as “family values crusaders” while engaging in all sorts of hanky panky behind closed doors. However, this being the 21st century, it’s getting increasingly harder to keep these kind of secrets safely under wraps. It appears Rep. Durham’s luck has finally run out – and at the worst possible time.

It seems that the recent “transgender bathroom flap” was the spark that burned Jeremy Durham and sealed his fate as a publicly known sexual offender. Rep. Durham recently sponsored a bill, known as House Bill 2414, that would bar transgendered individuals from using the women’s bathroom in public places, such as restaurants, bars, public buildings, etc. This bill would supposedly give protection to women who would otherwise be at serious risk of assault from transgenders and/or men posing as women in order to have easy access to them.

Meanwhile, Durham himself has been literally exiled from his office at the House of Representatives because of harassment charges stemming from 34 different women. The current Speaker of the House, Beth Harwell, had to order Durham’s offices to be moved across the street from the House after these allegations came to her attention. She also ordered Durham’s access to the House itself to be strictly limited in order to minimize the danger that Durham posed to women on the grounds of the property.

This action came in the wake of a public warning issued by Attorney General Herbert Slatery to the effect that Durham posed a “serious risk” to female employees that are employed by Representatives or otherwise work in the building. As a result of these rulings, Durham is severely limited in his movements when inside the building, and is basically chaperoned at every step.

Of course, these aren’t the first allegations that Rep. Durham has faced in his long and infamous career. As was the case for many years, Durham badgered, groped, harassed, and threatened women at will because they were simply too afraid of losing their positions if they took steps to report it. Durham was simply too powerful and had too many connections to back him up if he came under fire for his actions. As a result, although he has been cited many times for his harassment and threats, Durham has never faced a serious backlash – until now.

In the wake of the Bill Cosby case, which has largely been played out in the court of public opinion, Durham may well find himself out of favor with the Washington “Old Boys’ Club” and soon after out of office. The tide of public opinion is turning against “family values” hypocrisy. Even as Durham runs for reelection, he may find that his recent pandering to the public over “transgender hysteria” is the time bomb that will soon blow up in his face.


THE TENNESSEAN:

Durham suspends re-election campaign but won't resign

In a stunning about-face, embattled Republican Jeremy Durham announced Thursday he will suspend his re-election campaign but did not say he is resigning from the legislature.

"The great majority of the anonymous allegations in the AG report are either completely false or taken completely out of context. But there are a handful of interactions in there that are true," Durham said, reading a brief statement at his attorney's office in downtown Nashville.

"And while my best intentions may have been harmless, there were times where my communication was less than professional, and that is something for which I accept full responsibility and for which I apologize."

Durham blasted the investigation and House Speaker Beth Harwell and said he never had any sexual contact or attempted to have sexual contact with any of the women in the report. He refused to answer questions.

Harwell fired back at Durham minutes after the announcement.

“Representative Durham’s denials are insulting to the brave women whose testimony was detailed in the report. Representative Durham needs to make absolutely clear he is not seeking re-election," Harwell said in a statement.

Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, who earlier in the day said Durham's conduct made the outgoing senator want to "smack him in the mouth," also slammed Durham for not resigning.

"His actions were beyond disgraceful. Suspending his campaign but refusing to resign is an affront to the women of this state and the taxpayers who pay his salary," Ramsey said.

Former County GOP Chairman Charged with Child Molestation

Former Cobb Co. GOP chairman charged 

with child molestation

Adrianne Haney, WXIA 


(Photo: Cobb County Sheriff)

MARIETTA, GEORGIA -- A former Cobb County Republican Party leader was arrested Friday and charged with child molestation, police in Cobb County confirm.

Authorities say Joseph Russell Dendy, 71, was arrested in Cobb County after investigators learned that Dendy was wanted for child abuse-related charges out of Ann Arbor, Mich. and Laurens, S.C.

Police did not specify when the warrants in the other states were issued or go into detail about those charges. In Cobb County, Dendy faces child molestation and aggravated child molestation charges related to incidents that allegedly happened at his Cobb County home.

Dendy's attorney told the Marietta Daily Journal in an email that his client would be pleading not guilty to all charges and would be conducting his own independent investigation.

Dendy is being held without bond in Cobb County Jail.

Another source says that Denby is accused of molesting two boys, 4 and 12 years of age.

    Cobb County, Georgia

Retired Republican House Speaker Called 'Serial Child Molester'

Dennis Hastert, once the longest-serving Republican House speaker in U.S. history, was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Chicago to 15 months in prison in a hush-money case related to Hastert's sexual abuse of teen boys decades ago.

U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin called Hastert a "serial child molester" and said he would have given a lengthier prison term if not for Hastert's age and declining health.

Throughout the judge's remarks, Hastert sat in his wheelchair without expression, glasses low on his nose. At one point, as Durkin made it clear that probation was not in the cards, Hastert clasped his hands in front of his face and dropped his eyes.

He showed no outward reaction to the sentence. As the dozens of spectators filed from the courtroom, Hastert remained motionless with his mouth downturned, not speaking to anyone.

Shortly before learning his sentence, Hastert had admitted for the first time that he sexually abused boys decades ago when he was the wrestling coach for Yorkville High School.

Hastert, who has been hobbled by a stroke and other health issues, quivered as he was helped from his wheelchair by his attorneys and leaned heavily on a walker as he approached the lectern at the front of the courtroom. In a raspy but firm voice, Hastert apologized to those he victimized, saying he "mistreated athletes."

U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon addresses the news media after former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert was sentenced to 15 months in prison on April 27, 2016. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

"What I did was wrong and I regret it," Hastert said. "They looked to me, and I took advantage of them."

Durkin then asked directly if Hastert sexually abused certain victims. Hastert said he did not recall molesting Scott Cross, who moments earlier had testified that Hastert performed a sex act on him in an empty locker room when he was 17. "But I accept his statement," Hastert said.

Asked by the judge about another alleged victim, Stephen Reinboldt, Hastert called it "a different situation," but he said he was not denying the testimony of Reinboldt's sister, Jolene Burdge, who had testified about the abuse moments earlier.

"So you did sexually abuse him?" the judge asked.

"Yes," Hastert said.

The sentencing hearing completed the stunning downfall of Hastert, who rose from humble beginnings as a schoolteacher and coach to become the third-highest elected leader in the country, a man who was revered in the small towns of Kendall County he called home.

That legacy was shattered in May 2015 when federal prosecutors brought the stunning charges that Hastert had illegally withdrawn $1.7 million in hush money from various bank accounts to keep a former acquaintance quiet about "misconduct" in his past.

But it wasn't until earlier this month that prosecutors detailed in a 26-page sentencing filing that Hastert had abused at least five teenage students connected to the Yorkville wrestling team in the 1960s and 1970s.

One of them was Scott Cross. On Wednesday, an emotional Cross, 53, a younger brother of former Illinois House Republican leader Tom Cross, said he decided to go public so that his children and others would know there's an alternative to staying silent. As painful as his decision was, he said, "staying silent was worse."

Scott Cross' brother, a former Kendall County lawmaker who considered Hastert a political mentor, accompanied his brother to the sentencing.

Hastert, 74, is expected to surrender to a medical facility in the federal penitentiary system at an undetermined date.

Hastert's defense had sought a sentence of probation, a punishment Durkin said would not be appropriate in a case of this magnitude.

In lengthy remarks, the judge made much of the fact that when the FBI confronted Hastert about hundreds of thousands of cash withdrawals from banks, he tried to blame another sex abuse victim, identified only as Individual A, claiming he was blackmailing him.

"That's a big problem for you," Durkin said.

Prosecutors said in court that Individual A did not commit any crimes, and a lawsuit by Individual A said Hastert offered to pay $3.5 million for restitution and to keep the sexual abuse a secret.

The judge spent several minutes speaking about Hastert's victims, praising Cross' "incredible courage" for testifying Wednesday.

"He didn't have to do that," Durkin said.

The judge, also singled out Burdge, who had testified that her brother had told her of Hastert's sex abuse before his death in 1995.

Durkin told Burdge she could rest assured that people finally believed her.

Burdge nodded, smiled sadly in the courtroom gallery and whispered, "Thank you."

Individual A, whom Hastert paid $1.7 million to keep quiet, did not appear in court but delivered a written statement for the judge to consider. In the statement, Individual A said the sexual abuse had started with a massage, a similar account to other victims'.

Individual A was then 14, the judge noted.

"Can you imagine the whispering and the finger-pointing," the judge said, if there were rumors of "the town hero molesting you?"

Former House Speaker Accused of Child Sex Abuse, Embezzlement

Hastert is sworn in as speaker of the House of Representatives on January 6, 1999, during the  opening session of the House in Washington. Hastert replaced Newt Gingrich. 

(CNN)Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert sexually abused at least four boys when he worked as a wrestling coach at a high school in Illinois decades ago, federal prosecutors said.

In documents released Friday, prosecutors detailed stunning allegations against Hastert, the longest-running Republican speaker of the House.

The revelation comes days before his April 27 sentencing in a financial violation case. He pleaded guilty last year to structuring money transactions to evade reporting where he took massive amounts of funds he was withdrawing.

Investigators said the transactions involved $3.5 million he paid in hush money to one of his accusers.

Prosecutors listed four boys Hastert allegedly abused when he coached at a high school in Yorkville, Illinois.

An additional one -- a fifth student -- died years after the abuse, according to the document.

Dennis Hastert in 1985 as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives, where he served from 1980 to 1986.

Accuser allegedly paid off

The accusations came to light after investigators found out he was paying an ex-student to stay quiet about sexual abuse allegations, prosecutors allege.

The student was among four others who told investigators he abused them, including one who was 14 at the time, the documents allege.

The allegations date to the 1960s and 1970s, according to the prosecutors' court filing.

Hastert will not face sexual abuse charges because the statutes of limitation have expired.


Massages, sex acts alleged

All those who accused him of sexual abuse were wrestlers at the high school, according to the documents.

In two separate cases, Hastert massaged one boy each in a locker room and performed unspecified sexual acts on them, prosecutors allege.

In another instance, he allegedly massaged a boy's groin area and singled him out to stay in his hotel room during a wrestling camp.

Another accuser said Hastert touched him inappropriately in a "very weird" way while he was a student, prosecutors said.

"The actions at the core of this case took place not on the defendant's national public stage but in his private one-on-one encounters in an empty locker room and a motel room with minors that violated the special trust between those young boys and their coach," prosecutors said.

During his time at Yorkville High School, Hastert was a beloved coach. He was named Illinois Coach of the Year after leading the wrestling team to the state championship.


Apology

CNN has reached out to Hastert's attorneys, but has not heard back.

Before details of the sexual abuse allegations came to light, Hastert apologized this week for an unspecified misconduct.

"Mr. Hastert is deeply sorry and apologizes for his misconduct that occurred decades ago and the resulting harm he caused to others," his attorneys wrote. "He will stand before the court having deteriorated both physically and emotionally, undoubtedly in part due to public shaming and humiliation of an unprecedented degree."

As he awaits sentencing in the financial misconduct, Hastert was hospitalized with various ailments late last year, including a stroke and sepsis. His attorneys have asked for probation instead of jail time in the financial case.

Prosecutors are asking for only 6 months in jail. They'll probably recommend he be given a gold watch too. What a farcical system of justice - if he were an ordinary man, they would be seeking 60 years in prison.

Hastert served as the Republican speaker of the House between 1999-2007.