![]() In this case, there are no identified women to believe. But at least as of now, the sexual misconduct allegation was never credibly substantiated.Ĭrucially, no women ever came forward to report that they had engaged in sex with Menendez while underage. He was indicted on corruption charges in 2015, and his trial ended with a hung jury and mistrial last year. There’s plenty for Hugin to attack about Menendez. Instead, the bureau found evidence that Cuban agents had made up Williams as a way to smear Menendez, who had been critical of the Cuban government. Leonnig and Ernesto Londoño reported at the Washington Post in 2013. The FBI found no evidence to substantiate his claims, Carol D. ![]() But Williams declined to be interviewed by the bureau, and he did not offer enough information to identify any underage prostitutes. He also forwarded the group an email from someone going by the initials M.C., who he said was a prostitute who said she had witnessed Menendez having sex with prostitutes as young as 16.ĬREW passed on the information to the FBI, which performed an investigation. That year, a tipster going by the pseudonym Peter Williams (apparently a reference to a New Jersey senator who was convicted of bribery in 1981) emailed the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) to say that Menendez had engaged in sex with underage prostitutes. The Hugin spot is based on allegations against Menendez that surfaced during his reelection campaign in 2012, as Salvador Rizzo notes at the Washington Post. Republicans are trying to weaponize #MeToo Hugin and others on the Republican side, meanwhile, still seem interested in speaking out against harassment only when it serves their political ends. By invoking #MeToo, “they’re trying to strip Democrats of an advantage.”ĭemocrats have been far from perfect when it comes to addressing sexual misconduct allegations against their own, but at least they’ve begun to wrestle with the issue. “Republicans are losing women very badly,” Democratic pollster and political strategist Celinda Lake told Vox. The Hugin ad is one of a number of attempts by Republicans to use the #MeToo movement against Democrats by calling attention to allegations from their past.
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