RICHMOND, Va. — The crisis gripping Virginia’s government spilled into the legislative branch Monday when a rift emerged between African-American lawmakers and a white state legislator attempting to begin impeachment proceedings against Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, who is facing demands he resign over two accusations of sexual assault.
Shortly after a second woman emerged Friday night to claim she had been raped by Fairfax, who is the highest ranking black official in the state government, Delegate Patrick Hope, a northern Virginia Democrat, said that he would file legislation to impeach the lieutenant governor if he did not resign by Monday. And on Sunday, with Fairfax refusing to quit, Hope circulated a resolution that would have directed a House committee to determine whether allegations of sexual assault against Fairfax by two women, Meredith Watson and Vanessa Tyson, were grounds for impeachment.
But on Monday, Hope backed off after black lawmakers demanded on a conference call of House Democrats that there not be a rush to oust Fairfax at a moment when the state’s white governor and attorney general are refusing to resign after they admitted wearing blackface in their youth.
“Sometimes we have disagreements in the family, but we always are close-knit and we always come together,” Hope said, acknowledging he was pressured to abort his effort to impeach Fairfax. “Everyone wants the same outcome here.”
As the scandal engulfing Virginia’s three state elected officials entered its second week, it was clear that Fairfax, who denies both allegations, is in the gravest jeopardy. Four of his employees — two in his state office and two of his political aides — have quit, and he rushed out of the Capitol here with state police Monday at the end of the state Senate’s session to avoid answering questions about the resignations.
In an interview, Hope called for “a public hearing and a Virginia investigation” into Fairfax.
But his colleagues in the legislative black caucus, who have been agonizing over what to do about all three of the state’s executives since racist images from Gov. Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook surfaced Feb. 1, believe the claims against Fairfax should be litigated in a legal setting.
Delegate Lamont Bagby, chairman of the black caucus, said Monday that it was important for Democrats to find “the proper avenue” to investigate the claims against Fairfax, and he made clear he did not think that was in the state Legislature.
“I think that’s what the accusers want, and the accused wants,” said Bagby, adding, “I think that’s what everyone needs, that’s what the commonwealth deserves and that’s what the accusers deserve.”
And Delegate Charniele Herring, who is chairwoman of the House Democratic Caucus and a former state party chairwoman, said she did not want any legislative inquiry to have an effect on a potential criminal investigation.
“I’m concerned about how it could impact a prosecution,” Herring said.
Yet the lawyer for Watson, who claims Fairfax raped her in 2000 while they were students at Duke University, indicated otherwise and ratcheted up the pressure on the state’s lawmakers to open an inquiry into the lieutenant governor.
“Meredith Watson asks the Virginia Legislature to hold hearings, regardless of what they are called, and to reject a secret and delayed proceeding,” said Nancy Erika Smith, the lawyer. “Both victims of his sexual assault have agreed to testify and they will produce witnesses and documents to show their honesty and good character. Please do not allow these women to be further victimized by delay and defamation.”
The tensions among Democrats here reached a simmer late Sunday when the party’s House caucus dialed into a conference call.
One after another, a handful of black lawmakers spoke up to express their anger at Hope over what they see as his haste and making an already excruciating dilemma even more painful by trying to force them to take a public position on impeachment this week, according to three Virginia Democrats directly familiar with the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss party matters.
“Due process is important, which is exactly why I have called for resignation so Justin can take the time to do that versus the impeachment,” Delegate Lashrecse Aird, who was one of the lawmakers urging Hope to slow his push to impeachment, said Monday.
The black caucus has collectively called on Fairfax to resign. But there were unmistakable differences across racial lines in how the legislators viewed the matter.
“I believe both of these women,” Hope said of Fairfax’s accusers.
But some of the African-American lawmakers would not go that far: “I’m sensitive to anyone who has publicly had the bravery to come forward with these type of allegations,” Aird said.
Making an already delicate moment that much more awkward, a major tax measure working its way through the Legislature would not make a credit refundable for low-income Virginians. This prompted black caucus members to take to the floor Monday to denounce what one called “a bad deal” for black families in Virginia.
The state Capitol was still filled with local and out-of-town cameras and the building was a hive of activity as lawmakers sought to continue with the business of their legislative session.
When Fairfax arrived in the morning he simply repeated that he had “called for an independent investigation,” adding that he was “still very confident in the truth.”
But the lieutenant governor, who last week dismissed the first allegation against him as a “smear,” said in an interview published Monday that he wanted Americans to know him as someone who had “stood up for women and survivors to be heard.”
“They should be heard in every case,” he told The Root, a news website aimed at black readers, adding that it should not come at the expense of due process for the accused.
“I believe that what is happening now should be a model going forward in how we deal with survivors and their stories,” he said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.