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Sheila Jackson Lee reportedly being forced out of several key positions amid scandalous lawsuit

January 24, 2019 | | Print Article
WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 07: U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) speaks to members of the media at a hallway of the Rayburn House Office Building where former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey testifies to the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees on Capitol Hill December 07, 2018 in Washington, DC. With less than a month of control of the committees, House Republicans subpoenaed Comey to testify behind closed doors about investigations into Hillary Clinton’s email server and whether President Trump’s campaign advisers colluded with the Russian government to steer the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

On Wednesday congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat, formally stepped down as the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and also reportedly temporarily stepped aside from her role as the chair of a House Judiciary subcommittee.

The stunning turnaround in the 24-year congressional veteran’s career reportedly happened as a result of allegations that she once punished a staffer for trying to pursue charges against an alleged rapist.

In a lawsuit filed last week, the former intern claimed that when she tried to arrange a meeting with Lee in March 2018 to talk about a rape she experienced in 2015 at the hands of then-CBCF intern coordinator Damien Jones, the congresswoman fired her.

Identified in the lawsuit as “Jane Doe,” the intern said that although she informed several parties — including local authorities and congresswoman Jackson — of the rape in 2015, she abstained from pursuing legal action at the time but changed her mind in 2018.

But after requesting to meet with Lee last Month to discuss the best path forward, legally speaking, the congresswoman abruptly fired her, presumably in retaliation.

The Texas congresswoman has denied the allegations.

While Lee’s resignation Wednesday seemed voluntary, the evidence suggests she was effectively forced out of both the CBCF and the House Judiciary subcommittee by her peers.

“Members of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s board had given Ms. Jackson Lee an ultimatum late last week after the claims became public: step down as chairwoman or face a vote of removal as soon as this week,” The New York Times reported.

The National Alliance to End Sexual Violence had called her out as well.

“The National Alliance to End Sexual Violence unequivocally supports Jane Doe, who has filed a retaliation complaint against the Office of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation for mishandling Doe’s report of sexual assault,” the NAESV said in a statement.

“We begin and end all of our work with supporting survivors and support Jane Doe and many others who have been unsupported in their attempts to speak out.”

The move came as a surprise given that Lee was the primary sponsor of the reauthorization of Violence Against Women Act. The alliance said a new sponsor would be needed:

“We cannot, however, support her continued lead sponsorship. We look forward to working with House leadership to find an alternative path forward for VAWA as quickly as possible.”

Her Democrat peers had likewise begun plotting to boot her from her House Judiciary subcommittee chairmanship: “[F]ellow Democratic lawmakers had been prepared to try to force her from her chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee’s crime, terrorism, homeland security and investigations subcommittee,” the Times reported.

Following her seemingly voluntary resignation from the subcommittee Wednesday, the committee’s chair, Rep. Jerry Nadler, thanked her for stepping down but suggested she may not be guilty.

“I fully support her decision to voluntarily and temporarily step back from the Crime Subcommittee Chair position to ensure the Subcommittee’s important work continues. This decision does not suggest any culpability by Representative Jackson Lee,” he said.

It looked like an attempt to mitigate the damage in the face of even more evidence that everything the Democrats claim about being champions of victimized women is horse manure.

The fact is that Lee isn’t the first Democrat politician or operative to get caught up in sexual assault/rape accusations. Nor will she likely be the last.

HERE’S WHAT YOU’RE MISSING …

Last year a gay man accused Democrat Sen. Cory Booker of having sexually assaulted him in 2014, a top aide to Democrat Sen. Kamala Harris resigned after word broke that the senator’s office had paid nearly half a million dollars to hide his behavior and Illinois state Democrat House Speaker Michael Madigan’s office was rocked by sexual misconduct accusations.

And then, of course, there’s the curious case of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison:

Despite the allegations against Lee, she continues to present herself as an advocate for women:

Many find this support glaringly hypocritical:

HERE’S WHAT YOU’RE MISSING …

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Vivek Saxena
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