Senators won’t get a chance to put their new sexual harassment awareness training to work in questioning Gene Abdallah at his confirmation hearing. Attorney General Marty Jackley’s nominee for the Board of Pardons and Paroles has withdrawn his name from consideration. Dana Ferguson reports that Abdallah wrote a letter to Jackley saying he doesn’t want to fight Tiffany Campbell’s accusation that he sexually harassed her in 2012 when he was a legislator and she was a lobbyist. But Abdallah maintains that Campbell is lying:
“My friends have encouraged me to fight back against these nasty attacks. If I were younger and in good health, nothing could keep me from the challenge,” Abdallah wrote. “I also want to thank you for standing by me when false attacks were leveled against me by a person who was motivated by political gain” [Dana Ferguson, “Gene Abdallah Withdraws from Board After Report of Sexual Harassment,” that Sioux Falls paper, 2018.01.16].
So basically, Abdallah is still a jerk, but he won’t be a jerk on an official board requiring some sensitivity and decency in Pierre.
Jackley tells Ferguson he’ll nominate Minnehaha County commissioner and former legislator Anne Hajek to the Parole Board vacancy. Funny the A.G. hasn’t hustled out a same-day press release on that announcement yet as he did for Abdallah in October.
Could be that Abdallah doesn’t want to face testimony about his jerkism and illegality in situations other than that ignominious occasion when he asked a young woman lobbyist to pee for him.
I had to chuckle at Abdallah’s suggestion that Campbell made an accusation for “political gain.”
The political gain is there, but it’s for all of us. We won’t have this guy–whose entire career has been devoted to putting people in prison–on a board devoted to determining whether those people can finally get out of prison.
That’s good for everyone.
Abdallah reminds me of Joe Arpaio down in Arizona. On MSNBC, he was told that by getting a pardon from the big crook trump, he in fact admitted guilt. Totally stunned the old fart that he was admitting to guilt in order to make the charges go away with the pardon. This is more or less the same. As Mr. Newland points out, the news that this man will not be making decisions is good for everyone.
Bob Newland sums it up pretty well.
Under oath Abdallah would have to answer truthfully or commit perjury to a wide variety of questions.
What could possibly be the political gains for Tiffany Campbell.
Thanks go to Tiffany for seeing this thing through and making us all aware of Abdallah’s behaviors, while getting some justice.
Campbell would have gained nothing but the opportunity to testify at the same table as Abdallah and to look in the eye some of the same legislators who laughed off her complaint in 2012.
Update: Jackley has issued his press release about Hajek. He mentions nothing about Abdallah. The GOP press release blog posts Abdallah’s letter, showing Abdallah wrote to Jackley on December 29. Over two weeks passed before the withdrawal was made public.
Jeckley had a little meeting with him I’m sure.
Jenny, I doubt it. Jackley has demonstrated that he has his thumb up his ass, and doesn’t get it on stuff like this.
Some bad people need to go to prison.
Sometimes they get out after they pay their debt to society.
Some other bad people ask to watch you ladies pee in the public restrooms.
Some people test the cleanliness of those restrooms.
It is a strange world, indeed.
I wish Gene Abdallah the best while he recovers, because unlike him I don’t wish harm upon others, even those who have spoke out against me.
I wish I had the chance to testify and answer Senator’s questions. When I was notified last Friday that Abdallah was pulling his name from consideration I hoped it was because our AG and gubernatorial candidate had come to his senses. Sadly that is not the case. Jackley has a history of dismissing sexual harassment claims, Laura Kaiser winning a large settlement proves that. This state deserves better.
Thank you, Tiffany Campbell, for your courage. You are a South Dakota and American hero.
Thank you, Debbo, that means more to me than you will ever know.
Tiffany do you have a slander or libel case against Mr. Abdallah as he called you a liar and the article claims it as a direct quote? Just wondering.
Francis,
I do not, according to reports he is very ill and I don’t believe in beating a man when he is down. But his son is a lawyer, and if Gene wants to file a case against me I would welcome that. In his letter to Jackley he wrote, “I trust that someday the people responsible will be held accountable for the anguish they caused my family and me.”
The ball is in his court.