Its time to investigate the sexual assault charges against Donald Trump

https://www.salon.com/2017/11/21/its-time-to-investigate-the-sexual-assault-charges-against-donald-trump/

It’s time to investigate the sexual assault charges against Donald Trump
Donald Trump got a pass during the campaign on numerous accusations of assault. We need a new special prosecutor

Amanda Marcotte
11.21.2017•5:00 AM


It's now been more than six weeks since a New York Times exposé about Harvey Weinstein triggered a flood of people stepping forward with stories about being sexually harassed by powerful men. Last week, the news cycle was swamped with accusations against Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore and Minnesota Sen. Al Franken. This week, there is another accusation against Franken and an explosive Vox story reporting that numerous women say New York Times star reporter Glenn Thrush kissed and manhandled them against their will, and then talked smack about them at work afterwards.

In the midst of all this, it's absolutely stunning to realize that the sitting president of the United States, Donald Trump, continues to evade any consequences for the numerous accusations of sexual assault and sexual harassment made against him by women who had nothing to gain by going public. His press secretary continues cheerfully deflecting questions by suggesting that Trump's accusers, all 16 of them, are liars. Trump himself calls the whole thing "fake news," even though there is literally a taped confession where he brags about forcibly kissing and grabbing women, because "when you’re a star, they let you do it." In case you have forgotten the details of Trump's boasting, here they are:



“I feel this issue has been ‘on hold’ all year, but not forgotten," Natasha Stoynoff, who accused Trump of pushing her against a wall and shoving his tongue in her mouth, recently told People.

Stoynoff is right — the issue has been dropped, outside of some daily liberal grumbling about it. The reason for the lack of official response in Washington is simple enough: Republicans are protecting their president and have zero interest in instigating an investigation, much less considering legal consequences that could in any way slow down their efforts to destroy our health care system and slash taxes for the rich.

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Most important of all in the current climate, there needs to be a full accounting of exactly what Donald Trump has been accused of doing and what the evidence against him looks like. The lack of such a report becomes more glaring every time another man is publicly accused of abusive behavior — especially in cases, such as the Washington Post's reporting on Roy Moore or the New Yorker's reporting on Weinstein, where the allegations have been exhaustively researched.

To state what is unfortunately obvious, there's very little reason to believe that the Justice Department, which is run by Trump's hand-picked attorney general, Jeff Sessions, would be remotely interested in opening up a second investigation into this whole other series of potentially criminal allegations against Trump. But just because it isn't likely to happen anytime soon is no reason not to push for it. A pressure campaign aimed at demanding a special investigation into the amply documented sexual misconduct allegations against the president of the United States could be a clarifying moment, at the very least. It could also make it much more difficult for Trump to wait out the current controversy and let the story die on its own.