Right-wing activists Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman are offering $15,000 to anyone who can deliver “nail-in-the-coffin” information that will lead to the resignation of Virginia’s Democratic Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, following allegations of sexual assault.
The pair behind the infamous failed campaign to smear special counsel Robert Mueller—which imploded disastrously in back in October—announced their Fairfax bounty on a Periscope livestream on Tuesday afternoon.
LIVE: @JacobAWohl and Jack Burkman is offering $15,000 for information leading to the resignation of Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax. #valege https://t.co/3uJnymon97
— Culttture (@culttture) February 5, 2019
“Jack Burkman and I are offering a $15,000 cash reward—that’s right, a $15,000 cash reward—for information leading to the resignation of Justin Fairfax,” Wohl tells his audience.
“If you were a witness, if you saw him leading her to the hotel room,” he continues, “if you heard the struggle in the room next door—I’m talking about credible information that you might have that can prove that Fairfax indeed did commit this sexual assault and that this information can lead to his resignation and or his prosecution later on.”
Allegations were first published by right-wing outlet Big League Politics, quoting a private Facebook post made by Professor Vanessa Tyson of Scripps College in California who claimed that Fairfax had forced her to perform sexual acts in 2004 at the Democratic National Convention.
Fairfax became a national figure this weekend, as he would be the person to replace Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam if Northam resigned over his yearbook photo scandal.
In a response, Fairfax issued a statement on Monday denying the claims that the incident was assault and in a press conference called it “100 percent consensual.”
— Justin Fairfax (@FairfaxJustin) February 4, 2019
Fairfax notes that the woman approached the Washington Post with her story in 2017 and claims that the newspaper found “significant red flags and inconsistencies within the allegations.” Contrary to that, the Post responded to clarify that at the time it simply “could not find anyone who could corroborate” the story.
The duo’s previous scheme was to weaponize the Me Too movement against Mueller, who leads the federal investigation into Russia collusion in the 2016 presidential election. Back in 2019m, they tried to source manufactured accusations from a fake investigative firm called Surefire Intelligence.
Not only did some journalists come to quickly suspect that Wohl himself was behind Surefire Intelligence’s entire online set up, but the media picked apart the claims in a subsequent press conference hosted at a Holiday Inn outside Washington, D.C.
Of course, the move by partisan opportunists such as Wohl and Burkman does not at all negate the seriousness with which allegations of Fairfax’s accuser should be taken.
Tyson is reported to have hired the same legal team that represented Christine Blasey Ford in her allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
But anything unearthed by Wohl and Burkman should be viewed with suspicion.
