Fmr. LG Justin Fairfax Campaign Staffer Recounts FBI Meeting; Will Cornel West be on the Virginia Ballot?; Importance of the Black Vote
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🚩 2 days until The Battle of the Bay between Norfolk State University and Hampton University on Sept. 14
🚩 8 days until early voting in Virginia: Sept. 20
🚩 54 days until Election Day Nov. 5
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Tommy Bennett, Fmr. LG Fairfax Campaign Staffer, Recounts Details of FBI Interviews
Several recent interviews with Danville community leader Tommy Bennett reveal new details about an FBI investigation regarding the suspicious and unverified claims against then-Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax in 2019. Bennett is a former President of the Danville NAACP and has been active in several Democratic campaigns. Bennett was a consultant on Fairfax’s 2017 successful campaign for Lt. Governor. He says he was contacted by the FBI in 2022, which was later reported in The Washington Post.
The negative allegations directed at the Lt. Governor in 2019 at the moment it appeared Gov. Ralph Northam might resign from office, were published by The New York Times and The Washington Post in February 2019. The criminal allegations against the Lt. Governor, who has been involved in Virginia politics since 2012, were suddenly put forward by two attorneys, Nancy Erika Smith of New Jersey and Debra Katz of Maryland, just as a racism scandal unfolded around Gov. Northam and exploded in the news. The New York Times quoted heavily from Smith as part of a Feb. 8, 2019 story on her client, Meredith Watson. Days later, on Feb. 11, 2019, The New York Times reported a second allegation from Smith’s client from 1999, alleging that Watson was also accusing a second well known graduate of Duke University, Corey Maggette.
Neither allegation had been investigation by media or law enforcement before swift publication online on Feb. 6, 2019 and Feb. 8, 2019 with the New York Times leading the way. In the years since, no charges have been filed and no records of contemporaneous complaints, including medical reports, phone records, diary entries, police reports, text messages or emails are known to exist from Watson’s 1999 and 2000 claims at Duke University. Since April 3, 2019, the day Fairfax called again for prosecutors and police to investigate the events of early Feb. 2019, Watson has not been heard from. The Lt. Governor also contacted the FBI to investigate in late Feb. 2019.
Tommy Bennett, who was a campaign consultant on Lt. Gov. Fairfax’s successful 2017 campaign for Lt. Governor, told Black Virginia News during a series of discussions in 2022 and again over the last several months that two FBI agents, who he believed were based out of Lynchburg, Va. and Washington, DC met him in Danville at Ma's Cakes, located at 318 Main Street in Danville, Virginia in 2022. According to Bennett, the meeting with the agents lasted less than two hours.
According to Bennett, during their conversation he asked the agents about whether they investigated the stories leveled at Lt. Governor Fairfax in 2019 and one responded that, “yes they checked” the stories and, “we did a lot of work and we found that those ladies were not credible.” According to Bennett the main focus of the discussion was on money and any possible connections between money and unlawful activity as related to 2019.
“They were talking like they felt that Justin had been set up by somebody,” Bennett said during an Aug. 5 interview. “They stayed a while but they were talking like they wanted to go after whoever made these allegations against Justin,” Bennett added. “That’s the way I was feeling,” Bennett concluded about the 2022 discussion. Danville community leader Clem Oliver, who passed away in July 2023 and was also active in Democratic politics, was also said to have been contacted by the FBI in 2022 but that has not been confirmed.
But since 2022, there has been little news on whether their inquiry is ongoing. A review of media outlets that completed original reporting in 2022, including the The Intercept, The Washington Post and Associated Press reveals that at least five people were contacted by the FBI in 2022 regarding issues around the allegations.
From 2020 to 2022 the Washington Post editorial board wrote several editorials casting increasing doubt on the allegations against Lt. Gov. Fairfax and pointing out that investigation was needed.
RELATED: Opinion: We might finally get the truth about allegations against Justin Fairfax (The Washington Post, Aug. 1, 2022)
The political players involved in the Feb. 2019 stories that may have blocked then-Lt. Governor Fairfax from becoming Governor of Virginia included Thad Williamson, a former senior staffer to Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, and his wife Adria Scharf — who are long time friends of Fairfax accuser Vanessa Tyson, a college professor in California who attended the same "behavioral studies” graduate school program at Stanford as Christine Blasey Ford. Williamson’s wife, Adria Scharf, was in close communication with Tyson on the encrypted phone app SIGNAL in the first 72 hours of the scandal involving Gov. Northam on Feb. 2, 2019 writing under the heading MONDAY ACTION. The Feb. 3, SIGNAL message by Scharf to Tyson dated Feb. 3, the day before the Feb. 4 “Monday” in question, read in part:
“[N]ortham may be forced to resign tomorrow. Thad and I think your story should get to the local press TODAY, rather than later,” Scharf wrote to Tyson.
Tyson would later confirm on social media that she’d known “Thad and Adria” since 2003. Tyson also confirmed during an April 2019 interview on CBS that she relayed no issues or allegations against Fairfax over 13 years, from 2004-2017. But in late 2017, close to the month of Fairfax’s 2017 victory over State Senator Jill Vogel and around the time The New York Times published their first stories on Harvey Weinstein in Oct. 2017, Tyson contacted reporter Theresa Vargas at The Washington Post with “a sexual abuse allegation.” Tyson, whose mother is white, previously spoke publicly about her father (background unknown) and incest in interviews and academic writings.
Exchanges on social media demonstrate a connection between Tyson and several figures in Virginia politics since 2010. In March 2018, The Washington Post declined to publish Tyson’s allegation as related to Fairfax because, according to The Washington Post, she had no corroboration and made no known claims of any such event at the 2004 DNC Convention over a 13 year span (from 2004 to 2017). In late March 2018, the Lt. Governor expressed private relief to several other elected officials in Virginia that The Washington Post had arrived at the truth after four months.
Over the last several years, many have cast doubt on the allegations against fmr. Lt. Governor Fairfax, who was also a federal prosecutor and is currently a trial attorney. Fairfax was only the second Black person to serve in the position of Lt. Governor after L. Douglas Wilder. The current Lt. Governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, is the third and the first Republican.
“Look, the Virginia Democratic Party hasn't been right since they stole that seat from Justin Fairfax so let's just be honest. There always seems to be a power struggle going on there always within the party. I think that when you're looking at a state that shouldn't be solidly blue — Glenn Youngkin should have never had an opportunity to win that seat, regardless of who the Democratic nominee was. But it's this type of infighting, this type of petty personal politics that gets in the way of putting together a progressive agenda,” said Atlanta civil rights attorney Robert Patillo in April 2023 on Roland Martin Unfiltered.
In February 2019, Avis Jones DeWeever of Virginia, wrote on Medium during the news that, “in the Fairfax case specifically, I, for one, find it curious that from the very beginning, only one party has consistently requested the involvement of law enforcement to get to the facts. I also find it curious that only one party has asked for a thorough investigation — not merely a belated call for only a General Assembly Hearing, a space prime for political stunts and theatrics, rather than having a neutral full and fair search for the truth.”
“Black Leaders falsely accused of sexual assault are three- and-a-half times more likely to be innocent than white leaders accused of sexual assault, yet black leaders face greater resistance to exoneration and redemption even in cases in which their accusations are proven false and they are ultimately cleared of any wrong doing! We must Stand Up, Speak Up and Never Give Up until we put an end to the character assassination of innocent black leaders who are falsely accused for political gain,” Pastor Michelle Thomas of Loudoun, Virginia posted on her Facebook page in Oct. 2022.
The Facebook post from the Loudoun pastor came after Washington Post contributing opinion columnist and CNN commentator Sophia Nelson wrote in Oct. 2022 that I regret calling for Justin Fairfax to resign in The Post.
Months before, The Intercept reported that the FBI is Investigating Potential Political Motivation Linked to Justin Fairfax allegations. The Associated Press and The Washington Post wrote similar stories.
The facts have never been reviewed and investigated fully in the case of Lt. Gov. Fairfax. In the era of strategic disinformation and misinformation meant to destroy reputations and enact political results, other cases have become cautionary tales. In July 2019, political connections were uncovered by journalist Jane Mayer in a lengthy article in The New Yorker investigating the allegations against U.S. Senator Al Franken. Democratic congressional candidate former Mayor Alex Morse was found to be the target of a MeToo hit by rival Democrats revealed in a series of investigative pieces by The Intercept. Additionally, a string of false MeToo allegations connected to and announced by right-wing attorney Jack Burkman targeted then-Mayor Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Bobby Scott and former FBI Director Robert Mueller, were uncovered by media investigation over the last six years.
In fmr. Lt. Governor Fairfax’s case, allegations were printed swiftly within hours of two attorneys offering statements to media via a public relations firm (Evergreen Partners of New Jersey) during the first week of Feb. 2019.
🚩 RELATED: College Democrat Chats Reveals Year-Old to Engineer and Leak Alex Morse Accusations (The Intercept, Aug. 2020)
Despite there being no investigation, charges, testimony or even the first person claims of his accusers, the Democratic Party of Virginia, the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus and both Democratic Caucuses in the Virginia Senate and House demanded the immediate resignation of the Lt. Governor in 2019. Fairfax maintained his innocence as he has until present day and remained in office until the end of his term in 2022.
Virginia: Will There Be a Lawsuit to Keep Cornel West Off the Ballot?
The Elias Law Group, which is closely affiliated with the Democratic Party, is arguing that Professor Cornel West should not be on the ballot in Virginia.
The 2024 presidential campaign of Dr. Cornel West has run into balloting issues across the U.S. In Virginia, a paperwork issue prompted the Virginia Board of Elections to initially decide that West could not be included on the ballot. But the Board reversed their decision and decided West’s name could appear on the ballot. Elias Law Group is challenging that decision by the Board of Elections.
Early voting begins in Virginia on September 20.
All events and panels at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation take place at the Washington Convention Center in the District of Columbia.
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