2020

The #MeToo movement is catching up with staffers on Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign.
Two dozen ex-Sanders staffers sent a letter Sunday seeking a meeting with the former candidate — who might run again in 2020 — to “discuss the issue of sexual violence and harassment” in the Vermont senator’s 2016 run.
“We — the people who worked on Bernie 2016 — know that much of the success of our campaign was due to the intense commitment, passion and sacrifice of women, people of color and LGBT staffers,” says the letter, acquired by Politico.
“In recent weeks there has been an ongoing conversation on social media, in texts, and in person, about the untenable and dangerous dynamic that developed during our campaign.”
The letter did not make any specific allegations of misconduct. But one unidentified organizer told Politico that the letter “is just a start.”
“We are addressing what happened on the Bernie campaign but as people that work in this space we see that all campaigns are extremely dangerous to women and marginalized people and we are attempting to fix that,” the staffer said.
Among the written requests were “a productive statement on harassment in the campaign environment,” “a follow-up plan for implementing sexual harassment policies and procedures” and “a commitment to hiring diverse leadership to pre-empt the possibility of replicating the predatory culture from the first presidential campaign.”
The candidate himself, campaign manager Jeff Weaver; Sanders’ chief of staff, Caryn Compton, deputy chief of staff Ari Rabin-Havt, Shannon Jackson, the campaign manager for Sanders' 2018 re-election effort, and top communications official Arianna Jones were all asked to attend the meeting.
In a response, the senator’s campaign committee, Friends of Bernie Sanders, thanked the writers “for their willingness to engage in this incredibly important discussion.”
The committee acknowledged “a number of HR actions taken” during the 2016 run, with consequences ranging from “employee counseling to immediate termination.”
During Sanders’ 2018 re-election campaign in Vermont, his staff employed “more robust policies and processes regarding discrimination and harassment,” said the response letter, which was also obtained by Politico.
“Harassment of any kind is intolerable. Hearing the experiences and thoughts of individuals who worked on Bernie’s 2016 campaign is a vital part of our commitment to work within our progressive community to improve the lives of all people,” the response letter says.
Joey Jordan Salsbury, the president of American University Students for Bernie in 2015, previously alleged harassment by an unnamed intern during the campaign.
Salsbury claimed that the intern, another college student and her point of contact in the campaign, made unwanted advances toward her, but she said she felt that she had nowhere to report.
It was “a culture that didn’t discuss office policies with volunteers or make it clear that harassment wasn’t tolerated,” she told the Huffington Post last year.
Arturo Carmona, the failed California congressional candidate and former deputy political director in the Sanders campaign, was also accused of sexism and mistreatment, as well as allegations that he “covered up” an accusation of sexual harassment.
Sanders — who ended his 2016 presidential run when he endorsed Hillary Clinton shortly before the Democratic convention — has not announced his plans for 2020, though some of his backers have hinted at the possibility of another presidential run.

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Tecumsehsbones said:

She'll have a job explaining:

1. After the United States Supreme Court in Brown v. Plata (2011) declared California's prisons so overcrowded they inflicted cruel and unusual punishment, Harris fought federal court supervision, explaining "I have a client, and I don't get to choose my client." After California failed to fully implement the court's order to reduce crowding, and was ordered to implement new parole programs, lawyers for Harris appealed the decision on grounds that if forced to release these inmates early, prisons would lose an important labor pool. The prisoners were earning between 8 and 37 cents per hour.

2. Harris refused to take any position on criminal sentencing-reform initiatives Proposition 36 (2012) and Proposition 47 (2014), arguing it would be improper because her office prepares the ballot booklets. Former California Attorney General John Van de Kamp considered her explanation "baloney."

3. On August 24, 2012, the Los Angeles Times published an editorial calling on Harris to release Daniel Larsen from prison. Larsen, who was sentenced to 28 years to life under California's three strikes laws for possession of a concealed weapon in 1999, was declared "actually innocent" by a federal judge in 2009 and ordered released. Evidence in favor of Larsen included that of a former chief of police and the actual owner of the knife. Larsen's original lawyer, who failed to call a single witness, has since been disbarred. Larsen remained in prison because Harris's office objected to his release on the grounds that he missed the deadline to file his writ of habeas corpus. The California Innocence Project, which had taken up Larsen's case, said this amounted to a paperwork technicality. The Times editorial stated that if Harris was not willing to release Larsen, Governor Jerry Brown should pardon him. In March 2013, Larsen was released on bond with the case on appeal by order of Attorney General Harris "on technical grounds". In September 2013, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the ruling, and on January 27, 2014, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office dismissed the charge.

4. In 2013, Harris did not prosecute Steve Mnuchin's bank OneWest despite evidence "suggestive of widespread misconduct" according to a leaked memo from the Department of Justice.[83] In 2017, Harris said that her office's decision to not prosecute Mnuchin was based on "following the facts and the evidence...like any other case." In 2016, Mnuchin donated $2,000 to Harris's campaign, making her the only 2016 Senate Democratic candidate to get cash from Mnuchin, but as senator, Harris voted against the confirmation of Mnuchin as Secretary of the Treasury. As a result of the donation, she has faced criticism for not prosecuting Mnuchin and OneWest Bank when she was Attorney General.

5. In 2015, Harris defended convictions obtained by county prosecutors who had inserted a false confession into an interrogation transcript, committed perjury, and withheld evidence. Federal appeals court Judge Alex Kozinski threw out the convictions, telling Harris's lawyers, "Talk to the attorney general and make sure she understands the gravity of the situation."

6. In March 2015, a California superior courts judge ordered Harris to take over a criminal case after Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas was revealed to have illegally employed jailhouse informants and concealed evidence.[8] Harris refused, appealing the order and defending Rackauckas.

7. Harris appealed the dismissal of an indictment when it was discovered a Kern County prosecutor perjured in submitting a falsified confession as court evidence. Harris asserted that prosecutorial perjury was not sufficient to demonstrate prosecutorial misconduct. In the case, Harris argued that only abject physical brutality would warrant a finding of prosecutorial misconduct and the dismissal of an indictment, and that perjury was not sufficient.

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Twin_Moose said:

Paypal just need an email address

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Tecumsehsbones said:

She'll have a job explaining:

1. After the United States Supreme Court in Brown v. Plata (2011) declared California's prisons so overcrowded they inflicted cruel and unusual punishment, Harris fought federal court supervision, explaining "I have a client, and I don't get to choose my client." After California failed to fully implement the court's order to reduce crowding, and was ordered to implement new parole programs, lawyers for Harris appealed the decision on grounds that if forced to release these inmates early, prisons would lose an important labor pool. The prisoners were earning between 8 and 37 cents per hour.

2. Harris refused to take any position on criminal sentencing-reform initiatives Proposition 36 (2012) and Proposition 47 (2014), arguing it would be improper because her office prepares the ballot booklets. Former California Attorney General John Van de Kamp considered her explanation "baloney."

3. On August 24, 2012, the Los Angeles Times published an editorial calling on Harris to release Daniel Larsen from prison. Larsen, who was sentenced to 28 years to life under California's three strikes laws for possession of a concealed weapon in 1999, was declared "actually innocent" by a federal judge in 2009 and ordered released. Evidence in favor of Larsen included that of a former chief of police and the actual owner of the knife. Larsen's original lawyer, who failed to call a single witness, has since been disbarred. Larsen remained in prison because Harris's office objected to his release on the grounds that he missed the deadline to file his writ of habeas corpus. The California Innocence Project, which had taken up Larsen's case, said this amounted to a paperwork technicality. The Times editorial stated that if Harris was not willing to release Larsen, Governor Jerry Brown should pardon him. In March 2013, Larsen was released on bond with the case on appeal by order of Attorney General Harris "on technical grounds". In September 2013, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the ruling, and on January 27, 2014, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office dismissed the charge.

4. In 2013, Harris did not prosecute Steve Mnuchin's bank OneWest despite evidence "suggestive of widespread misconduct" according to a leaked memo from the Department of Justice.[83] In 2017, Harris said that her office's decision to not prosecute Mnuchin was based on "following the facts and the evidence...like any other case." In 2016, Mnuchin donated $2,000 to Harris's campaign, making her the only 2016 Senate Democratic candidate to get cash from Mnuchin, but as senator, Harris voted against the confirmation of Mnuchin as Secretary of the Treasury. As a result of the donation, she has faced criticism for not prosecuting Mnuchin and OneWest Bank when she was Attorney General.

5. In 2015, Harris defended convictions obtained by county prosecutors who had inserted a false confession into an interrogation transcript, committed perjury, and withheld evidence. Federal appeals court Judge Alex Kozinski threw out the convictions, telling Harris's lawyers, "Talk to the attorney general and make sure she understands the gravity of the situation."

6. In March 2015, a California superior courts judge ordered Harris to take over a criminal case after Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas was revealed to have illegally employed jailhouse informants and concealed evidence.[8] Harris refused, appealing the order and defending Rackauckas.

7. Harris appealed the dismissal of an indictment when it was discovered a Kern County prosecutor perjured in submitting a falsified confession as court evidence. Harris asserted that prosecutorial perjury was not sufficient to demonstrate prosecutorial misconduct. In the case, Harris argued that only abject physical brutality would warrant a finding of prosecutorial misconduct and the dismissal of an indictment, and that perjury was not sufficient.

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Ocean Breeze said:

Interesting. Learning about her now that she announced.

The Dem pool is growing. It is good to see the interest level.

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pgs said:

Any one in that bunch that can heal the fractures in the Democratic Party and mount a serious challenge to the incumbent ?

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Hoid said:

-and a bank account - which requires an address

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Tecumsehsbones said:

That you approve of her fighting the release of an innocent man is unsurprising.

Just ballpark, how many innocent people would you like to see in prison?

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Hoid said:

Go get a bank account without an address.
Let us know how you make out.

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Cliffy said:

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Hoid said:

Go get a bank account without an address.
Let us know how you make out.

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