Hundreds of veterans rebuke Rep. Dan Crenshaw over claims he smeared sex assault victim

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, questions witnesses during a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing on 'worldwide threats to the homeland', Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020 on Capitol Hill Washington. (Chip Somodevilla/Pool via AP)

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of veterans have signed a letter calling on U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw to resign after a government watchdog report linked the Houston Republican to attempts by Veterans Affairs officials to discredit a woman who reported sexual assault at a VA hospital.

The veterans are also slamming Crenshaw for not “mustering the courage” to cooperate with the inspector general of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The investigators were troubled by the way VA Secretary Robert Wilkie handled the outcry of the woman, a Navy veteran who is now a Democratic congressional aide. Crenshaw declined the investigators’ request to interview him about it.

“His abuse of power as an elected member of Congress to smear a fellow veteran who works as a staffer in the same halls is disgraceful and unethical,” says the letter, which was signed by nearly 1,000 veterans as of Wednesday evening. “As an elected member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dan Crenshaw has failed to act in a manner that reflects credibly on the House and has broken the public trust necessary to represent his constituents and fellow veterans.”

The letter is led by Democrats, including Elisa Cardnell, a Navy veteran who ran in a March primary as she sought to unseat Crenshaw. It comes after senior VA officials testified that Crenshaw told Wilkie that the woman who reported the assault had filed frivolous complaints when she and Crenshaw served in the same Navy command.

MORE ON THE VA REPORT: Rep. Dan Crenshaw accused of discrediting Navy vet’s sex assault outcry

Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL who lost his right eye in an IED blast in Afghanistan, called the letter “partisan garbage, and typical of the left’s reliance on narrative-building over facts.” He noted that the VA report concluded that “no violation of law, regulation, or policy” occurred.

“I will not stand by and have my good name and reputation tarnished by this partisan hack job. I would never assume, without evidence, that a fellow veteran’s claims are untrue, nor would I attempt to involve myself in any ongoing investigation,” Crenshaw tweeted.

“I have no reason or incentive to do so, nor do I think it is the right thing to do as a fellow veteran and especially as a Member of Congress,” he said. “I have the utmost respect for fellow veterans and especially the challenges that many female veterans face.”

VA investigators said Wilkie referred to the woman who made the outcry, Andrea Goldstein, a senior policy adviser for the House Veterans Affairs Committee, in “denigrating terms, openly questioned her credibility, and reportedly ascribed a political motive to her reporting of the incident.”

Goldstein alleged that a VA hospital contractor “bumped his entire body against mine and told me I looked like I needed a smile and a good time.” Federal authorities earlier this year declined to file charges in the case.

Senior VA officials told investigators that Crenshaw passed along information about Goldstein to Wilkie, according to the report, which both Crenshaw and Wilkie have denied.

The report points to an email Wilkie sent Chief of Staff Pamela Powers and Brooks Tucker, assistant secretary congressional and legislative affairs, after a fundraiser that he and Crenshaw both attended. It said: “Ask me in the morning what Congressman Crenshaw said about the Takano staffer whose glamor (sic) shot was in the New York Times.”

Crenshaw has described the allegations as purely political.

“The Democrats created this narrative. They’re so good at this, it’s unbelievable,” Crenshaw told Newsweek . “They take a few facts, and then they construct a narrative.”

Goldstein’s attorney, Mark Zaid, called for Crenshaw to “publicly apologize and refocus his energy towards eliminating all forms of sexual harassment or assault.”

“We will leave to others whether Cong. Crenshaw’s statements should have consequences, but let’s be clear in understanding that his comments serve to undermine the integrity of the system and disrespect any veteran who experienced what Ms. Goldstein encountered at a VA facility,” Zaid said in a statement.

A handful of Texas Democrats have signed the letter, including MJ Hegar, a former Air Force pilot who ran against U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.

FORT HOOD FALLOUT: Army announces 14 firings, suspensions following Guillén investigation

The inspector general’s report was released amid a #MeToo scandal at Fort Hood that was sparked by the death of Houston soldier Vanessa Guillén, which highlighted problems with the way sexual harassment and assault allegations were treated by the chain of command.

The Army this month relieved or suspended 14 leaders at Fort Hood after an outside panel found there was a permissive environment for sexual assault and harassment at the post. The sexual assault prevention program there was so ineffective, the probe found, it “resulted in a pervasive lack of confidence, fear of retaliation, and significant underreporting of cases, particularly within the enlisted ranks.”

“In light of the rampant rate of sexual misconduct in the military and negligent command climates such as those at Fort Hood, we need more service members with the courage to bring such instances to light without fear of reprisal and retaliation,” the letter says.

The signers of the letter are also calling for a House ethics investigation into Crenshaw’s conduct.

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