Sexual assault

Is it Swal-over for Swalwell? Congressman Eric Swalwell – the longtime anti-Trump crusader, MS Now and CNN mainstay, and a leading candidate in the California gubernatorial race – has now been accused by an anonymous ex-staffer of sexual assault. The allegations, published by the San Francisco Chronicle, turn mainly on inebriation and the so-called power imbalance between the two: Driving him to another event weeks later, she said Swalwell pulled out his penis in the car and asked her to perform oral sex on him. She said she did so in a parking lot. In September 2019, the woman said, Swalwell invited her out for drinks and she became so severely intoxicated that she does not remember the rest of the night.

Timothy Ballard, the founder of Operation Underground Railroad and subject of the film Sound of Freedom, has filed lawsuits against seven women who are accusing him of sexual assault: Celeste Borys, Sashaleigha Hightower, Mary Hall, Kira Lynch, Krista Kacey, Bree Righter and Amy Morgan Davis. Specific accusations against Ballard include pretending to have sex with Borys in the shower, grinding, grabbing, kissing and licking. “It was obvious that he had an erection,” Mary Hall said at one point. Ballard founded OUR, a nonprofit organization in 2013 after working for the Department of Homeland Security for eleven years and a short stint with the CIA in 2001. OUR’s mission is to end sex trafficking.

The Department of Justice’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, issued a damning report Thursday concerning the FBI’s handling of child sex abuse cases. This report comes three years after one which documented a lapsed culture at the Bureau. In the current review, the IG looked at 327 cases and found that the FBI was slow to respond to reports of child sex abuse, failed to follow up on leads and failed to advise other agencies. The report cited a case where no investigative activity was recorded for over a year, while the subject went on to abuse another child. Some cases were so concerning that the IG team in the middle of their review referred forty-two of them to the FBI for immediate attention.

Do you have to be a predator to catch a predator? Two lawsuits filed this week make claim to that, accusing Tim Ballard, the self-proclaimed savior of hundreds of trafficked children who inspired the movie Sound of Freedom, of sexual assault. On Wednesday, the attorney representing five women who filed a lawsuit against Ballard and Operation Underground Railroad earlier this week confirmed that a second lawsuit has been filed. The latest suit, brought against Ballard by a couple, accuses him of sexual assault, financial damages and ruining the couple’s marriage.  “Tim has taken everything from me. He has purposefully destroyed my marriage, manipulated my wife, ruined the relationship with my kids and with my wife's family,” the plaintiff and husband, known as FT, said.

This morning in a London court, a jury handed down a verdict. The actor Kevin Spacey stood accused of nine counts of sexual assault, which had sparked up in the aftermath of #MeToo; six years later, the jury acquitted him of all of them. Though he had remained stoic during the trial, he cried as the final “not guilty” was read aloud. The two-time Oscar winner, star of House of Cards and American Beauty, former artistic director of the famous Old Vic theater and reluctantly outed gay man was free. He turned sixty-four years old today.   To some, this is a massive miscarriage of justice.

“If I wanted to, I could have had sex with people all the time,” said Kevin Spacey in court this week. Cockburn isn’t sure how the disgraced actor thought that would land during his cross examination for his London court case, where he pleaded not guilty to a dozen charges that include sexual and indecent assault counts and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent. During his time in the witness box, the House of Cards actor had his final chance to convince jurors that he never assaulted anyone. The outcome of this case could affect whether he’s able to make a career comeback after sexual misconduct accusations. It isn’t exactly going swimmingly so far.

The mixed verdict delivered by the jury in the Donald Trump civil rape case will be interpreted differently by those who support and oppose the former president.   On the main count that Trump raped E. Jean Carroll, the nine-person jury unanimously found that he did not. The plaintiff could not even satisfy its low burden of proof, namely proof beyond a preponderance of the evidence. In so finding, the jury apparently disbelieved at least part of the plaintiff’s testimony. She was very specific about being raped, not merely sexually abused or molested, as the jury did find.   It’s a strange verdict.

Happy twenty-fifth anniversary of the greatest headline in world history! DRUDGE REPORT NEWSWEEK KILLS STORY ON WHITE HOUSE INTERN BLOCKBUSTER REPORT: 23-YEAR OLD, FORMER WHITE HOUSE INTERN, SEX RELATIONSHIP WITH PRESIDENT Thus began the nation's one-year slog through President Bill Clinton’s lies and calumnies, ending in his disgrace and impeachment. Now, that was an impeachment. You missed a good one, kids. President Trump was impeached for making an (allegedly) inappropriate call to the president of Ukraine? Oh please. To discuss what Clinton did in the Oval Office the whole country needed a V-chip.