Virginia Democrat threatens Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax with impeachment if he doesn't resign by Monday
- The calls for Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax to resign are getting louder as a second woman accused him of sexual assault on Friday.
- So far, Fairfax has refused to step down, but now it appears he could be forced out. Virginia Democratic delegate Patrick Hope said, "On Monday, I will be introducing articles of impeachment" if the lieutenant governor does not resign before then.
- Vanessa Tyson, the first woman to come forward with a misconduct allegation against Fairfax, released a statement on the matter this week, accusing Fairfax of forcing her to perform oral sex on him in Boston during the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
- Fairfax has repeatedly the denied the allegations.
The calls for Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax to resign are getting louder as a second woman accused him of sexual assault on Friday.
So far, Fairfax has refused to step down, but now it appears he could be forced out. Virginia Democratic delegate Patrick Hope said he would introduce articles of impeachment if the lieutenant governor does not resign before then.
Vanessa Tyson, the first woman to come forward with a misconduct allegation against Fairfax, released a statement on the matter this week. She has accused Fairfax of forcing her to perform oral sex on him in Boston during the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
Fairfax has repeated denied the allegations. In a statement to INSIDER on Monday, Fairfax's spokeswoman said, "At no time has the Lt. Governor assaulted anyone at any time or at any place. As a father, husband, and public servant, he knows that sexual assault is a very serious matter and survivors of assault deserve to be heard."
On Friday, he denied the second allegation and called for an investigation. "It is demonstrably false," a spokesperson told INSIDER in a statement. "I have never forced myself on anyone ever."
Democratic and Republican lawmakers have loudly urged Fairfax to step aside.
The situation is developing alongside a scandal involved Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, who has been fighting off accusations of racism stemming from a 1984 yearbook page attributed to him that features images of two people dressed in blackface and a Ku Klux Klan-style robe.
Northam insists he does not appear in the photo, despite having initially taken responsibility for it. He, too, has chosen not to resign.
Another Democratic lawmaker, Attorney General Mark Herring, also admitted this week that he wore blackface as an undergraduate at University of Virginia in 1980.