After laying low since the end of the 2019 General Assembly session, Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax (D) recently appeared at an NAACP event in Hampton Roads where he again spoke out in favor of himself regarding the accusations of sexual assault and rape levied against him. Interestingly, the event was purported to be dedicated to women’s history.
Dr. Vanessa Tyson, a Scripps College professor, alleges that Fairfax sexually assaulted her in a hotel room at the 2004 Democratic National Committee conference in Boston, Massachusetts. Meredith Wilson, a junior at Duke University almost two decades ago, has accused Fairfax of rape when he was a senior at the North Carolina college in 2000.
When news of the first allegation surfaced, the lieutenant governor called it “false and unsubstantiated” and a “totally fabricated story.” Although he reiterated to national reporters covering the story “how important it is for us to listen to women,” an NBC News correspondent caught Fairfax saying “f*** that b****” as he tried to discredit Dr. Tyson.
Fairfax has ignored calls for his resignation from nearly every member of Virginia’s Democratic Party, and has adamantly expressed that he is innocent. He has also called for an FBI investigation into the matter, even though, as a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, he knows that the federal agency has no jurisdiction over the situation.
Both women have expressed their willingness to testify in front of the General Assembly.
House Democrats obstructed efforts to investigate the allegations of sexual assault and rape nearing the end of the 2019 legislative session, but Republicans are working towards a bipartisan plan that will ensure justice is adhered to, giving the two accusers an opportunity to explain their claims, officially.
Nevertheless, at the event in Hampton Roads earlier this week, Fairfax spoke out in defense of himself and against the accusations, telling the crowd that the accusations being made against him are lies.
Fairfax is also currently being investigated by San Francisco-based law firm Morrison & Foerster, the firm that employed the lieutenant governor part-time, which also placed him on leave following the accusations.