Showing posts with label Harvey Weinstein. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harvey Weinstein. Show all posts

Monday, September 16, 2019

The Tale Of Lisa Bloom & Her Trafficking Tiny Humans - Will She Represent Marion Brown In Detroit?

Women celebrate at CCBRT in Tanzania
"The Celestial Goddess of the Woodshed is telling
the world why Lisa Bloom sucks using us as lab rats."
Gather round, my Dearies, for the Celestial Goddess of the Woodshed shall tell the tale of Lisa Bloom and her Trafficking Tiny Humans.
I knew Lisa Bloom sucked because she was mean to my Sweetie, but now I know why she was mean to my Sweetie.
Lisa Bloom has a trafficking tiny humans issue and it is called the Fistula Foundation.

Fistula Foundation is in targeted geopolitical regions of Africa,

Fistula Foundation
Fistula Foundation
https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2017/770/547/2017-770547201-0fc4044e-9.pdf
The Fistual Foundation has lots of partners.

Fistula Foundation is dedicated to treating women suffering from obstetric fistula, a devastating childbirth injury that leaves a woman incontinent. Surgery is the only cure. Fistula Foundation provides more life-transforming fistula repair surgeries than any other organization in the world. We believe that no woman should endure a life of misery and isolation simply for trying to bring a child into the world. We are committed to accountability and transparency, and receive the highest ratings from every industry watchdog group.
"Epigenetic testing time series always need at least 80 lags!"

Kidde lab rats.

This is genetic testing.

Ask yourself, how come rare conditions only break out in targeted geographic regions?

According to Fistula:
“This is exactly the kind of program we strive to fund at Fistula Foundation. CCBRT has emerged as a global leader in fistula treatment and as a trailblazer in the use of M-PESA for patient identification and transportation,” said Kate Grant, CEO of Fistula Foundation, which has provided financial support for CCBRT’s fistula work since 2009.

It seems Lisa has investments in M-PESA which looks like the exact same thing Monica Peterson was uncovering in Haiti in those United Nations microfinance asset forfeiture human trafficking schemes. 
Following a three-year migration project to a new technology stack, as of 26 February 2017, IBM's responsibilities have been transferred to Huawei in all markets.
What the article below also fails to identify are the unanswered question of:

  • How did Cernovich get his hands of classified, congressional documents, that are not documented in traditional record keeping channels in congress?
  • Will Lisa be representing Marion Brown in January when Elisa Grubbs gets an attorney? 

At least we do know now her source of operational funding comes from the trafficking of tiny humans in Africa through Goldman Sachs, which means, we finally understand why Lisa was so mean to my Sweetie.

#perkinscoiesucks

The full story of how celebrity attorney Lisa Bloom worked to help Harvey Weinstein and give ammo to Donald Trump

Lisa Bloom
In “She Said,” a new book by New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the high-profile feminist attorney Lisa Bloom is put on blast for her defense of Harvey Weinstein.

A memo from Bloom to Weinstein detailing how she would use her experience defending sexual assault victims to discredit his accusers has gone viral, with multiple celebrities denouncing Bloom.

In addition, “She Said” suggests that Bloom operated a money-making scheme off of potential sexual assault victims of President Donald Trump, giving the president ammunition to defend himself in the process.

Lisa Bloom built a reputation of representing female victims of sexual assault, not unlike her mother, the famous feminist attorney Gloria Allred. But now Bloom’s reputation is at stake, thanks to a widely-publicized memo she sent her former client Harvey Weinstein and new details from the book “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement.”

New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor reveal the process of breaking the Weinstein sexual harassment story that won a Pulitzer Prize in “She Said,” and at the same time the two cast doubt on Bloom’s legacy as a defender of women.

As explained in her memo to the disgraced Hollywood producer, Bloom relied on the same tactics she used to defend sexual assault victims to try and slander some of Weinstein’s accusers, most notably Rose McGowan. But as Twohey and Kantor explore in “She Said,” Bloom also provided President Donald Trump with valuable ammunition against the media and his accusers in her efforts to raise money for herself and potential Trump victims.

Read more: Gwyneth Paltrow hesitated to expose Harvey Weinstein because of controversy surrounding Goop, according to a new tell-all

Lisa Bloom’s career includes some major wins for female victims of sex crimes.

Bloom first practiced law at her mother’s firm, helping to file an ultimately unsuccessful sex discrimination suit against the Boy Scouts of America on behalf of a girl who wanted to join.

She enjoyed a lucrative career on TV as a legal expert before starting her own firm in 2010. Since then, Bloom and her clients have engaged in high-profile lawsuits that made strides in sex crime cases in New York and California.

Bloom represented model and actress Janice Dickinson in her defamation case against Bill Cosby, actress Mischa Barton in her revenge porn case, influencer Blac Chyna as she took out a temporary restraining order against Rob Kardashian, and former Representative John Conyers’ sexual harassment accuser Marion Brown.

She also represented three of Bill O’Reilly’s accusers, including Wendy Walsh, whose complaint incited 21st Century Fox to initiate the investigation that led to O’Reilly’s removal.

But in “She Said” and on Twitter, some of her clients have criticized how Bloom handled their cases.

Comedian Kathy Griffin wipes her eyes as her criminal attorney Dmitry Gorin (L) speaks at a news conference in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 2, 2017. At right is attorney Lisa Bloom. REUTERS/Ringo Chiu
In “She Said,” Twohey and Kantor explain that Bloom represented former Fox contributor and attorney Tamara Holder in her sexual assault case against Fox executive Francisco Cortes, who she said trapped her in his office and tried to force her to perform oral sex.

Bloom helped Holder attain a settlement for more than $2.5 million, but Holder later told the reporters that Bloom didn’t explain just how ironclad the terms of the settlement were. Holder wanted to speak out about what had happened to her, but if articles were published, she would lose much of the $2.5 million.

“She did not care about me. She cared about the money,” Holder later told Twohey, explaining that Bloom fired her and walked away with $1 million after Holder voiced her concerns. In “She Said,” Bloom denies that she pressured Holder, and says she walks through settlements line-by-line with her clients.

Read more: The career of Lisa Bloom: How Gloria Allred’s daughter ended up defending Harvey Weinstein and came to regret it

On Twitter, after the memo sent from Bloom to Weinstein leaked, another one of her former clients spoke out: Kathy Griffin. Bloom represented Griffin after the comedian posted a picture of her holding up a prop of President Donald Trump’s severed head.

In her thread, Griffin explains that Bloom called a press conference days after the photo blew up online, during which Griffin felt more like a prop in “an infomercial for her firm in her office.” The comedian also said Bloom invited reporters from Entertainment Tonight, who interviewed Bloom while Griffin was in her office with Bloom’s husband, who held the door shut.

Griffin also said that conservative bloggers showed up to the press conference and harassed her, and that Bloom then charged her $40,000 for representation and advocacy, which Griffin asked to be returned – Bloom refused.

Bloom also relied on her experience defending women to help tear them down to Harvey Weinstein’s advantage.


The explosive memo, which circulated on Twitter and was contained in “She Said,” explains to Weinstein just how Bloom intended to use her repertoire of defenses for sexual assault victims against Weinsein’s accusers.

In it, Bloom specifically refers to actress and Weinstein accuser Rose McGowan as a “pathological liar,” and tells Weinstein “I feel equipped to help you against the Roses of the world, because I have represented so many of them.”

In “She Said,” Twohey and Kantor explore how Bloom attempted to gain information about their reporting and stymie their efforts even in the very beginning of their investigation. As Kantor began meeting with Hollywood actresses who weren’t ready to go on the record about their experiences with Weinstein yet, Bloom reached out via email, feigning ignorance.

Kantor learned from a colleague at The New York Times that Bloom was close to Weinstein, who, along with Jay-Z, she had announced would be making her book “Suspicion Nation: The Inside Story of the Trayvon Martin Injustice and Why We Continue to Repeat It” into a miniseries, which did not come to fruition.

Kantor ended up having a short conversation with Bloom, but did not reveal any details of her investigation into Weinstein’s sexual abuse.

It was also revealed later to the two reporters that Bloom, as part of the tactics she hinted at in her memo, explained to Weinstein that there was a difference between “physical coercion” and “mental coercion,” with the latter being sexual exploitation due to a power imbalance.

Bloom developed Weinstein’s defense that he had only mentally coerced McGowan, a lesser offense than assaulting her.

Bloom has apologized for defending Weinstein, but “She Said” exposes just how far the attorney was willing to go for her client.


Beyond representing Weinstein publicly, Bloom went on the offensive against Twohey and Kantor during their reporting. The attorney apologized for her role in Weinstein’s defense on Twitter, thanking the reporters and writing that “When the first woman went on record accusing him of sexual assault, I immediately resigned and apologized.”

She did resign from Weinstein’s team once the Times went ahead with publishing Twohey and Kantor’s reporting, but the two chronicle how far Bloom was willing to go to stop the publication of their article in “She Said.”

Not only was Bloom aware of records containing allegations against Weinstein prior to the reporting, but her mother Gloria Allred’s firm sat on them prior to the Times’ investigation. Allred negotiated a settlement between Weinstein and a backup dancer from “Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights,” which Weinstein’s company Miramax produced.

Read more: Celebrity attorney Lisa Bloom offered Harvey Weinstein a smear campaign against Rose McGowan in an unearthed letter

Allred is also a strong proponent of allowing non-disclosure agreements in conjunction with sexual assault and harassment settlements – which serve as a win for both the legal representation of the victim and the abuser, with the former profiting and the later keeping their reputation intact.

Both Bloom and her mother used the settlement and non-disclosure agreement method to seek closure for the women they represented.

While working for Weinstein, Bloom pressured the Times reporters and suggested the paper had a “reckless disregard for the truth.”


As Twohey and Kantor continued their investigation, W Magazine published a profile of Allred and Bloom with the headline “Gloria Allred and Lisa Bloom Are the Defenders of Women in 2017.” By January 2017, the Times reporters, wrote, Bloom had already been on Weinstein’s legal team for six weeks, and was being paid $895 per hour.

As publication of the Times’ investigation drew closer, in October, Bloom was still working for Weinstein. In an email to the producer and other members of his legal teeam, Bloom wrote “We can nip at [the article] around the edges – and we should – but it is going to run.”

In an early statement prepared for the Times, Bloom wrote that she was a women’s rights advocate and that she had forced Weinstein to listen to her and “evolve.” She noted that he was working on bringing her book to the screen, but had always been very respectful toward her.

Then, in a surprise visit to the newsroom, Bloom and Weinstein appeared in front of the reporters. Bloom pulled out red carpet photos of Weinstein with Judd and McGowan, while Weinstein suggested the two women were mentally unstable.

Right before the article went live online, Weinstein and Bloom called the reporters and continued to make the producer’s case. Bloom resorted to media shaming tactics, complaining that the Times had “a reckless disregard for the truth” and was attempting to publish a “hit piece” full of “false accusations.”

After the first article was published, with actress Ashley Judd on the record, Bloom continued to contend that the accusations were false. She only resigned after multiple more women came forward, The New Yorker published its own investigation, and actress Gwyneth Paltrow decided to go on the record with accusations of her own.

Some of Bloom’s fundraising for sexual assault victims may have been more for herself, and given Trump ammunition against his accusers.


Apart from her involvement in the Weinstein sexual harassment story, Twohey and Kantor pointed out another ploy that appeared to benefit Bloom financially under the guise of seeking legal justice for women. That time, it concerned Donald Trump.

In 2016, the reporters wrote in “She Said,” Bloom got involved in a lawsuit alleging that Trump and the late financier Jeffrey Epstein raped a 13-year-old girl together at a party at Epstein’s New York residence in the ’90s. Bloom announced she was representing the accuser and held a press conference for the Jane Doe to make her first public appearance.

She did not appear. Bloom approached the podium alone and announced that, due to death threats, her client was too afraid to appear publicly. To other Times reporters, it seemed like a stunt to garner media attention that benefitted Bloom. Later, the attorney said she dropped the case because the woman was too afraid to ever go public.

Bloom also acknowledged that she solicited funding from pro-Hillary Clinton donors for her work with the Jane Doe victim. After the lawsuit was dropped, Bloom had collected $700,000 for security and relocation fees, as well as a “safe house” for other potential Trump accusers. She returned $500,000, but kept $200,000 for “out-of-pocket expenses.”

As Twohey and Kantor write in “She Said,” the entire incident gave Trump ammunition to attack his accusers by suggesting that “four or five women […] got paid a lot of money to make up stories about me.” Bloom’s donations and preparations for potential Trump victims coupled with real Trump accusers, then twisted and amplified by the president’s rhetoric, gave Trump a story to stand on.

Bloom is currently representing accusers of Jeffrey Epstein, but her reputation may have taken a hit.


Radio-TV personality Wendy Walsh (R) speaks with reporters alongside her attorney, Lisa Bloom, to discuss her allegations of sexual harassment by Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, during a news conference in Los Angeles, California, U.S., April 3, 2017. REUTERS/Kevork Djansezian
Lately, Bloom has taken on a new role defending women, this time using her firm to represent some of Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers. She and her mother both represent women who have testified that Epstein abused them.

The actress Rose McGowan, who Bloom directly planned a smear campaign against, has spoken out since the publication of “She Said.”

“Her email is staggering. Staggering!” McGowan told Variety. “This woman should never work again.” The actress suggested that both Bloom and David Boies, another member of Weinstein’s legal team who also currently represents Epstein accusers, should be disbarred.

Along with McGown, other actresses and public figures have criticized Bloom’s role in representing Weinstein. Both Busy Philipps and Mandy Moore have denounced the memo’s contents on Twitter, with the former noting “[…] how beyond horrible if you are a victim she currently represents and you read this memo.”

“I hope this book will go a long way to exonerating me and the other victims who’ve dealt with slander and mental assault for years now,” McGowan told Variety. “As for me, in Hollywood I suppose I’ll continue not working. It doesn’t make any sense, and it’s really hurtful.

“But in my own life, I’m incredibly happy now and feeling very balanced. And that’s something they can’t take from me.”

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Thursday, January 31, 2019

Cocktails & Popcorn: What A Clever Girl - Anastasia Vashukevich Hustles Her Way Out Of A Thai Prison - The Porn Is Coming

What a clever girl!

She used the old John Mark Karr - JonBenet Ramsey, Thailand Switch-O-Change-O-Get-Out-Of-Jail Card.

Perhaps, Oleg would like to tell us about how she ended up in such a profession, for historic purposes of due process, only, of course.

The porn is coming.

I suggest a nice Russian vodka as a choice of cocktail.

This is going to get really nasty, for many people.

MODEL ADMITS SHE MADE UP RUSSIAN COLLUSION STORY ABOUT TRUMP TO GET OUT OF JAIL

Model Anastasia Vashukevich, also known as Nastya Rybka, who was deported from Thailand to Russia after her arrest and pleading guilty to charges including conspiracy and soliciting, is escorted before a court hearing in Moscow, Russia January 19, 2019. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva
Anastasia Vashukevich is a clever girl!
A Belarusian model who originally said she had secret recordings that tied President Donald Trump to Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska and showed collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign now says she lied.

Anastasia Vashukevich, who goes by the alias Nastya Rybka on the internet, told CNN in a report published Tuesday that she made up the whole story as a means of getting out of a Thai prison last year.

Vashukevich was doing hard time in Thailand for offering her sex coach talents to the locals.

Arrested and convicted for solicitation, she was sent to prison. Allegedly fearing for life behind bars, she decided to attract some international media attention with her story of having information that would link Trump to the Russian oligarchy.

(RELATED: Report: FBI Agents Interviewed Russian Oligarch About Collusion Prior To Election)

She asked for political asylum in the U.S. to tell her story. She eventually received deportation back to Russia.

It appears the whole ordeal was about publicity.

“I think it saved my life, how can I regret it? If journalists had not come at that time and that story had not come to the newspapers, maybe I would die [be dead by] now,” she told CNN.

The model and reportedly high-priced escort says she has been counseled by Russian security to say no more about her alleged affair with Deripaska.

Deripaska is closely linked with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has had business dealings with Paul Manafort, who ran Trump’s presidential campaign. Manafort plea bargained with special counsel Robert Mueller for the investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. He had been charged with illegal lobbying on behalf of Ukraine.

(RELATED: Manafort, WikiLeaks Deny Bombshell Report Of Assange Meeting)

Deripaska has never acknowledged any relationship with Vashukevich. He has been linked with Christopher Steele, the author of the salacious Trump dossier that purported to describe Trump’s sexual peccadilloes while in Russia.

Vashukevich’s checkered past also includes a nude protest in front of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, when she and another internet model took off their clothes in support of disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. The two stated at the time: “We came here to support the producer who offered women sex. Sex is right, sex is cool!”

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Saturday, June 2, 2018

All Hail The Whistleblowers: The Beginning Of Due Process In Sexual Harassment - Caitlin Dulaney, et al v. Harvey Weinsten, et al Lawsuit

Image result for kid blowing the whistle
"Stop.  I call child welfare fraud.  The penalty will be that
the world must listen to us, as certified class members, now."
There has been a wave of egregious sexual harassment accusations that have never been addressed.

There are even more accusations of rape and torture of tiny humans, but the media remains oblivious to the generations of screams.

If an individual is passionate enough to stand up and speak out, with a consistent characterization of what happened, then they should be considered a whistleblower, assigned with all purposes of ending a pattern of practice.

If society continues to ignore the cultural pervasiveness of the peculiar institution's ability to normalize the transmogrification of our young into perpetrators of moral turpitude, then, perhaps, people will listen, or just read the complaint, below, to a class of members who are original sources.

The proverbial “casting couch” was Harvey Weinstein’s office of choice, a choice facilitated and condoned by Miramax, The Weinstein Company (“TWC”), and its Board of Directors. Plaintiffs, and hundreds of other females like them, found themselves with Weinstein on the casting couch at offices, in hotel rooms, in his homes, or in rooms at industry functions. Under the guise of meetings ostensibly to help further Plaintiffs’ careers, or to hire them, or to make a business deal with them, or to socialize at industry events, Weinstein isolated Plaintiffs and Class members in an attempt to engage in unwanted sexual conduct that took many forms: flashing, groping, fondling, harassing, battering, false imprisonment, sexual assault, attempted rape, and/or completed rape.
Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

What Do Marion Brown & Stormy Daniels Have In Common?

Q: What do Marion Brown and Stormy Daniels have in common?

A: #perkinscoiesucks

I wonder if Marion Brown is going to be the opening act.

I hear she is seeking employment.

Stormy Daniels returns: Detroit strip club books porn star for 2 shows


America's most talked-about porn star is coming back to Detroit. 

Stormy Daniels will perform two shows May 14 at the Penthouse Club Detroit at 20771 W. Eight Mile Road, according to the club's Facebook page

"Exclusively for the Penthouse #grand opening it's the Penthouse Pet of the century," the post reads. 
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, skyrocketed to mainstream fame in recent months amid news reports of a 2006 one-night stand with President Donald Trump and a six-figure payout as part of a pre-election nondisclosure agreement that may have violated campaign finance laws.
Daniels performed last month at Truth Detroit gentlemen's club. 

No word yet on whether she plans to ever stop at another prominent Detroit strip club — Trumpps.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Marion Brown Went Shopping In D.C.

No comment at this time...your honor.

https://knightfoundation.org/grants/4078

http://archive.is/xTgPg

Post-#MeToo, Stalled Careers, Alienation Still Haunt Sexual Harassment Victims

Marion, The Dry Humper

Lawmakers say they are aware of challenges

Shortly after Marion Brown’s account of sexual harassment toppled a powerful congressman last fall, she returned to Washington on a frigid afternoon to ask for support from the lawmakers who had lauded her as a hero.

Wearing a smartly tilted fur cap, she left her business cards with aides who, to her, looked two generations her junior. She hoped for a reference, a lead on a new job, a bit of advice. She left the Capitol feeling disappointed, although lawmakers told Roll Call they want to do all they can to help.
Brown, 62, who spent 11 years as a Detroit-based outreach director to former Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers Jr., is among a handful of former congressional employees to publicly disclose sexual harassment allegations in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement. Their stories attracted a surge of media attention and inspired bipartisan legislation that unanimously passed the House and is making its way to the Senate.

But the hoped-for reckoning in Congress has sputtered, and several of the alleged victims say the publicity has done little to diminish the toll on their careers and personal lives.

“People try to be as nice as they can, but I’m still feeling the backlash,” Brown said.

In the months after sexual misconduct allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein inspired a national conversation about sexual harassment in American institutions, eight members of Congress — seven of them in the House — have either resigned or announced they will not seek re-election because of allegations of harassment or sexual misconduct. That number, though large by historical standards, pales compared to the dozens of accusations against powerful men in other industries.

Meanwhile, details of past allegations against members of Congress remain unclear. There are lingering questions about lawmakers’ ability, or willingness, to investigate their own colleagues. And calls for accountability have largely given way to attempts to improve working conditions for future employees.

Brown and other women who have come forward say all the attention has not improved their stalled careers or their sense of isolation — repercussions that they believe will continue to prevent other women from speaking up about mistreatment.

Lawmakers say they know it is tough for women in Brown’s position. The only thing that will make it easier is to change the culture surrounding gender dynamics in the workplace, and that conversation is just beginning.

The aftermath

Brown, petite and steely-eyed, first encountered those consequences when she lost her job in Conyers’ office in 2013 and filed a complaint alleging that he had touched her inappropriately and pressured her for sex for years. Her case was buttressed by four signed affidavits from colleagues who said they had witnessed Brown’s treatment, and that Conyers had harassed them too.

Not ready to retire, she tried to get another job in politics. She gave up shortly after another member of Congress told her he needed Conyers’ support too much to cross him, she said.

“That was his reputation,” she recalled. “Nobody is going to hire you. Nobody is going to touch you, unless you have a blessing from him.”

In 2014, she signed an agreement never to talk about her allegations in exchange for a $27,000 payment. It was fraction of her $72,000-a-year salary, and did little to compensate for the years of productivity remaining in her career. She took a job as a part-time airline gate attendant for $15 an hour and the promise of occasional free flights.

She thought she had moved on when she got a call last Thanksgiving weekend saying she was about to be thrust into a media firestorm.

Mike Cernovich, a blogger with a far-right following, had offered $10,000 to anyone who could document a sexual harassment claim against a member of Congress. The offer netted him Brown’s settlement agreement, though the source, he later said, declined the reward.

Brown said she still doesn’t know who gave Cernovich the documents. This point is important, she said, because people think she leaked her own story to take revenge on Conyers. Cernovich is best known for promoting a debunked conspiracy theory that the Hillary Clinton campaign ran a pedophile ring from a D.C. pizzeria.

She waited over a week to respond publicly. She made up her mind after watching Conyers deny her allegations and House minority leaderNancy Pelosi defend him on national television as “an icon.”
Watch: The #MeToo Impact on 2018

“I just wanted to control the story,” Brown said. She also hoped that she could rehabilitate her career and play a role in what she saw as an emerging social movement. And for a head-spinning week, she did. She met with lawmakers and House officials who wanted to know how they could change the system.

Conyers’ supporters held a rally at a Detroit church, saying he had been treated unfairly and deserved due process under the law. But the pressure on him mounted as several other alleged victims came forward, and he resigned.

Brown returned to the same pressures of her post-congressional life in Detroit — the unpaid bills, the rapidly diminishing savings, the uncertainty about her future.

This time, though, she faced the added stress of suddenly becoming a public figure in a local community that had expressed extreme ambivalence about Conyers’ rapid descent. Some offered support. Her indoor cycling instructor even led the class in a round of applause. But others shunned her. She was snubbed at restaurants, she said. Friends stopped speaking to her.

“People feel like supporting me publicly is like not supporting him,” she said. “In the community, it’s like, ‘Why did you do it?’ These are the most hurtful things, when you lose people who you thought were friends.”

Conyers’ lawyer Arnold Reed said the former congressman would not comment for this story. He said Conyers is enjoying his civilian life.

“It’s a proven fact that her claims are false,” Reed said, without elaborating. “John Conyers has become the poster child for people to bring false allegations, and then they feel bad, because they lie.”

A better future?

Lawmakers say they are acutely aware of the challenges facing alleged victims like Brown, who lost their careers and reputations for speaking out at a time when there was little incentive to do so. Some have thrown their energies into trying to ensure future victims are better protected.

Female house members played a key role in drafting the workplace protection changes that passed the House last week — the first such update for congressional employees since 1995. Some changes went into effect immediately, including a rule that would create an office devoted to counseling House staffers throughout the claims process and a commitment to pay for their legal representation. Others, like a provision that would require all members of Congress to pay for settlements involving their own alleged misdeeds, are awaiting a vote in the Senate.

Indiana Republican Susan W. Brooks, who chairs the House Ethics Committee, told Roll Call columnist Patricia Murphy last month that her work on the legislation was “some of the most important work I’ll ever do in the House.”

The sponsors spent hours meeting with victims. California Democrat Jackie Speier, one of two former staffers in the group, filmed a video in which she talked about being assaulted as a young staff member.

Other female sponsors said privately they were motivated, in part, by personal experiences they were not prepared to divulge. They also said they feared their male colleagues would respond by shutting young women out of jobs or the social interactions that can be crucial to career development on the Hill.

Critics, however, said it was unclear whether the legislation would make much of a difference, partly because it didn’t specify how the new resources would be paid for. It also took away authority from the Office of Congressional Ethics — the only independent body tasked with investigating ethics allegations against House members. Instead, cases would be automatically referred to Ethics committees in the House and Senate, which are composed of members and their staffs.

Those committees have frequently been criticized for being overly lenient on lawmakers.
“It’s clear that Ethics committees are not just asking what the person is charged with, but what does it mean to the institution, how will impact my party down the line,” said George Derek Musgrove, author of the book “Rumor, Repression, and Racial Politics: How the Harassment of Black Elected Officials Shaped Post-Civil Rights America.”

Most ethical investigations in the House or Senate drag on for years or are resolved in secret — 125 of the 190 cases the House Ethics Committee has opened since 2011 were resolved confidentially, according to a report released Wednesday by the watchdog group Issue One.

Even under the intense media scrutiny spurred by the #MeToo movement, the fallout for members who have been named as alleged harassers in recent months has been mixed, with lawmakers’ themselves deciding their fate and little that amounts to due process.

Keeping secrets

Many allegations still remain secret. The names of members or offices involved in the more than $300,000 in payouts for sexual harassment and other workplace discrimination claims since 2003 have not been released, and it is uncertain if they ever will be.

Rep. Barbara Comstock, who has been at the forefront of calls for institutional changes, said last week that she would continue to press for those details.

“We need to let the victims know that they can speak out from the past,” the Virginia Republican said on the House floor. “If they want to speak out, they can; that this body is not going to be using any of our resources to stop a victim from the past from speaking out.”

Those who have already spoken out, though, say they need more than an assurance that Congress won’t stand in their way. Brown, for one, is still wondering what happens next.

“I don’t want it to be five minutes of fame, to be associated with wanting to just have revenge and taking someone down,” she said. “I want to be a part of the movement for change, for women’s equality. And I would want them to help.”

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©