Justin Fairfax Exonerated? Was It a Hoax? 15 Facts to Consider #Virginia
Justin Fairfax Exonerated? Many Virginians, especially in the Black community, questioned the timing of it all. This week The Intercept, The Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Washington Post, and Associated Press reported that the FBI is asking questions related to nefarious political motivations behind the events on Feb. 1st to Feb. 8th, 2019.
At the moment Gov. Ralph Northam appeared to be about to resign in scandal, out-of-the-blue allegations immediately became public against Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax. One obvious political motivation: Blocking Fairfax from becoming the only Black Governor in America at the time — had Northam resigned.
Fairfax had already run statewide in 2013 for Attorney General and 2017 for
Lt. Governor with no issues. Any action that would prompt the undoing of a decision by 1,368,261 Virginia voters should be thoroughly investigated.
FEB. 2019: NORTHAM KKK SCANDAL. As former Gov. Ralph Northam’s racist 1984 yearbook photos hit the news, in the form of a person in Ku Klux Klan garb and a second in blackface, Northam was called on by national, state and local leaders to resign. In a Feb. 1, 2019 statement, Northam confirmed he was one of the individuals in the racist photo.
“I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo…” Northam’s statement in part read. But the next day on Feb. 2, 2019, Northam denied he was one of the racist figures in the photo. To date, the individual in the Ku Klux Klan robe and the individual in blackface in the photo on Northam’s Eastern Virginia Medical College 1984 yearbook page have not been publicly identified by name. The college paid McGuireWoods law firm $368,000 to investigate but many questions remain unanswered.
From left to right from the top: Vanessa Tyson and Thad Williamson in 2014, Gov. Ralph Northam at his Feb. 1, 2019 press conference, Northam’s 1984 yearbook, a SIGNAL message on Feb. 3, 2019 from Adria Scharf to Tyson, Northam, Williamson, Scharf and Levar Stoney and the top part of the “MONDAY ACTION” message.
The sudden and unsubstantiated allegations against Fairfax were never investigated by law enforcement. The Washington Post investigated the claim by Tyson in early 2018 but didn’t publish because Tyson had no corroboration over 13 years.
Above is the 2019 statement of The Washington Post’s VP Chief Communications Officer Kristine Coratti Kelly.
Media appeared to immediately assume Fairfax’s guilt a year later. On Feb. 6, 2019, the New York Times published an allegation in full. On Feb. 8, 2019 at 5 p.m. a second allegation was made public by New Jersey-based attorney Nancy Ericka Smith via a press release quickly published online. A New Jersey PR firm (Evergreen Partners, which is now Kessler PR) and Smith, along with Debra Katz, of Katz, Marshall and Banks are connected to this matter.
From the first day the news hit on Feb. 3, 2019, Fairfax asked prosecutors and law enforcement to investigate in all his public statements on the matter.
On April 3, 2019 at a press conference in Richmond, Fairfax told reporters his attorney would be formally contacting Durham, NC prosecutor Satana Deberry and Boston, Mass. prosecutor Rachel Rollins (both Black women) to investigate. But no known charges have ever been filed or investigated.
There are 15 interesting facts related to this matter.
“MONDAY ACTION” AGAINST FAIRFAX? In a message sent on the encryption app SIGNAL on Sunday, Feb. 3, 2019 with the title MONDAY ACTION, the wife of former Levar Stoney (Richmond’s Mayor and a Fairfax rival) aide Thad Williamson urges Fairfax accuser Vanessa Tyson to come forward quickly as calls for Ralph Northam to resign grow louder.
As reported by the student paper, The Collegiate at The University of Richmond in 2019, and again by The Intercept: “Feb. 3, Scharf told Tyson that “[N]ortham may be forced to resign tomorrow.” Gov. Ralph Northam’s resignation would have resulted in Fairfax becoming governor. “Thad and I think your story should get to the local press TODAY, rather than later,” Scharf wrote in the same text to Tyson.
SIGNAL app messages of Adria Scharf and Vanessa Tyson on Feb. 3, 2019 as the Northam KKK photo scandal peaked.
2. 2014 PHOTO. Another piece of evidence that former Stoney aide Thad Williamson is linked to Fairfax accuser Tyson is a 2014 photo (seen in the top image in the left corner) on her Facebook page of her and Williamson at a book event in Washington, DC. Tyson also confirmed knowing Williamson since the early 2000s. That there’s a link to a political rival is an interesting fact.
2. THE 2018 WARNING. Fairfax says he was warned by a Richmond City Hall employee in October 2018, three months before the February 2019 scandals, that he would be the target of a MeToo political attack. The warning Fairfax received is noted in the court case Fairfax filed against CBS in Sept. 2019 and is also substantiated by phone records as reported by The Intercept and The Washington Post in 2020.
3. COREY MAGGETTE ACCUSED. Fairfax accuser Meredith Watson also accused Duke/NBA basketball star Corey Maggette of rape. Maggette immediately and categorically denied the allegation saying, “I have never sexually assaulted anyone in my life and I completely and categorically deny any such charge.”
A press release by her attorney Nancy Smith made public on Feb. 8, 2019 accused “a Duke basketball player” of rape in 1999. The press release was issued on the same day Watson accused Fairfax. The New York Times reported on Watson’s Maggette allegation. Watson’s allegation prompted FOX Sports to remove Maggette off the air for a time. No evidence has been presented regarding the allegation and Watson hasn’t brought up Maggette or Fairfax since April 2019.
4. FABRICATED DATE?
I met Mr. Fairfax on July 26, 2004, when he and I were working at the Convention. We struck up a conversation on the first day of the Convention and soon realized we had a mutual friend.
The first line of the second paragraph of Vanessa Tyson’s statement published on Feb. 6, 2019 in the New York Times is false. Justin Fairfax was in Raleigh, North Carolina and not Boston, Massachusetts on Monday, July 26, 2004. Fairfax was staffing Vice Presidential nominee Sen. John Edwards. In three years, Tyson has never publicly named who the mystery “mutual friend” of Tyson and Fairfax is.
5. SILENCE FOR 3 YEARS. Neither Tyson or Watson have answered any investigative questions from the media since April 3, 2019. The Associated Press, Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, NBC and ABC hasn’t interviewed the accusers on these matters since April 3, 2019. CBS, which conducted exclusive interviews on April 1-2, 2019, has never updated their reporting on these matters or interviewed them again since April 3, 2019. Vanessa Tyson did announce a book project in July 2018.
6. McAULIFFE FIRST TO CALL FOR RESIGNATION. Former Governor Terry McAuliffe was the first known pol to call for Fairfax’s “immediate resignation” minutes after the news of the Watson allegation became public. The tweet below was sent two minutes BEFORE Fairfax sent his statement to The Washington Post. This indicates it didn’t matter what Fairfax’s side was.
7. ALL DEMOCRATS? It’s noteworthy that so many allegedly involved in the background on the Fairfax side of the Feb. 2019 stories are Democrats. The Northam side of the story, which began with Big League Politics posting Northam’s racist yearbook page images after his comments on abortion on WTOP, appears to have been connected to Republicans.
8. POLITICS. Five days after Fairfax said he would run for Governor in 2021 on Dec. 18, 2019 to a group of seniors in Petersburg, Va., and two days after Fairfax appeared on Dec. 20, 2019 on Politics Hour with Kojo Nnamdi discussing plans to run for Governor of Virginia, Vanessa Tyson announced a run for California's 57th State Assembly district on Dec. 23, 2019. CLICK. The last words of Tyson’s statement in the New York Times posted on Feb. 6, 2019:
9. “SHE SAID SHE’S GOING TO DESTROY MY LIFE” RESTRAINING ORDER. A vividly worded restraining order written by an ex-boyfriend, Meredith Watson allegedly wrote over 100 text messages to him in the application. “I am going to enjoy tearing you down just as much as you enjoyed tearing me down. Hang on tight because you are in for a ride!” read one of the alleged texts as transcribed by the ex-boyfriend.
The restraining order was reported by Associated Press, The Daily Beast and Politico. The New York Times and The Washington Post have never reported Watson’s issues with other individuals (the restraining order, a lawsuit by a Baltimore hospital over unpaid bills, an alleged criminal record for assault, or her 2015 home foreclosure) as they did when President Biden was accused regarding accuser Tara Reade.
Audio of Watson’s ex-boyfriend in court is as vivid as his restraining order application. Listen below at 2mins and 30secs.
10. FORD. Fairfax accuser Vanessa Tyson and Brett Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford had the same fellowship in 2019, and attended the same school in California: The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University. They also have the same attorney: Debra Katz.
2019: Both Christine Blasey Ford and Tyson were fellows at the same school.
11. STONEY SAYS “ACCUSED RAPIST.” At a press conference on July 27, 2022, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney used the same words used by Meredith Watson’s attorney Nancy Erika Smith. Note that the Washington Post, two years earlier in 2020, asked if the allegations against Fairfax was a rush to judgement.
12. MYSTERY DEAN. The New York Times reported that Watson told a Duke University dean or administrator that she was raped by Corey Maggette in 1999 — an allegation Maggette strongly denied and for which Watson has never presented any evidence. The New York Times reported on Feb. 11, 2019 the matter. No such Duke University dean or employee has been named publicly by Watson or her attorney Nancy Erika Smith. Maggette strongly denied the allegation. On Feb. 15, 2019 Associated Press reported that Watson’s social media accounts were deleted before the allegations became public.
(Above) On Feb. 11, 2019, The New York Times reports, with no evidence or documentation, that Watson attorney Nancy Smith is claiming a second rape allegation. Smith also claims that an unknown dean at Duke “discouraged” Watson from pursuing the claim. No such individual has ever been named.
13. EXONERATING WITNESS. The Intercept reported the name of a Duke University alum, Raleigh, NC defense attorney Dhamian Blue, as the witness that Fairfax says can exonerate him in the matter of Watson’s spring of 2000 allegations at Duke. Though the witness (whose room at Duke the encounter occurred in) hasn’t spoken publicly, it’s noteworthy that Watson’s attorney Nancy Erika Smith won’t answer questions from media on whether a third person was present. That Smith hasn’t denied that a third person was present was highlighted in a Washington Post editorial in July 2020. The Washington Post (below) and now as of 7/28/22, The Associated Press (“Watson and her attorney have declined to address whether a third person was in the room”) have reported on this matter.
14. OUTSPOKEN. The Washington Post reported on Feb. 8, 2019 that Vanessa Tyson has been outspoken for 20 years on matters of sexual violence and consent. But she had never mentioned an incident in 2004 when she was 28 (Fairfax was 25) with a stranger with no power over her. Tyson is also on video in 2007 speaking on her father and incest.
15. RESIGN RIGHT NOW. A look back at press statements/social media reveals an intense push to get the Lt. Governor to resign, and fast. The fierce rush to judgement to resign immediately started before Fairfax was even able to respond to an allegation based on events nearly 20 years ago. Minutes after a press release by New Jersey attorney Nancy Erika Smith and New Jersey PR firm Evergreen Partners (now Kessler PR) the resignation calls began. Before anyone even asked if the claims were true or false or vetted, On Feb. 8, 2019, Arlington Del. Patrick Hope, apparently assuming without evidence that the claims were true, pushed for impeachment hours after Smith’s press release.
The push appeared to be focused on quick resignation and the undoing the decision of 1,368,261 Virginians who voted in 2017. Below:
