Washington state Sen. Joe Fain, R-Auburn, seen on the Senate floor in Olympia, Wash., has been accused of raping a woman 11 years ago. The lawmaker told a local newspaper that he denies the allegations. (Associated Press)
A Seattle woman who said she was inspired by the televised hearing into the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, has accused a Washington state senator of raping her 11 years ago.
Candace Faber, 35, tweeted the allegations against Washington state Sen. Joe Fain, a Republican, Thursday following the hours-long hearing where Kavanaugh and his accuser Christine Blasey Ford both testified, the Seattle Times reported.
A few minutes after the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing came to an end, Faber tweeted “Is anyone else just fed up and ready to name names? Because I am!”
She then called out Fain on the social media website and accused him of raping her in 2007 after she graduated from Georgetown University.
“Like many survivors, I was inspired by Dr. Ford’s courage,” Faber said in a statement Thursday. “Like Dr. Ford, I can no longer remain silent knowing that the man who raped me is in a position to influence the laws that govern my state and impact every woman who lives here.”
Fain did not immedialy respond to a Fox News request for comment Saturday. The moderate Republican, who serves as the minority floor leader of the Washington state Senate, denied the allegations to the Times in a text message.
“I absolutely deny what Ms. Faber is accusing me of,” Fain said. “Any allegation of this serious nature deserves to be heard and investigated for all parties involved. I invite and will cooperate with any inquiry. I ask everyone to show respect to Ms. Faber and to the process.”
“I absolutely deny what Ms. Faber is accusing me of. Any allegation of this serious nature deserves to be heard and investigated for all parties involved. I invite and will cooperate with any inquiry. I ask everyone to show respect to Ms. Faber and to the process.”
Fain, 37, was elected to the Senate in 2010 and is up for reelection in November against Democratic opponent Mona Das.
Lawmakers from both parties, including Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, said Faber’s allegations should be investigated, the Times reported.
“The governor believes this is a very serious allegation that unquestionably deserves a full investigation by law enforcement officials,” said Tara Lee, an Inslee spokeswoman, in an email.
The paper reported that Faber has told her story of that night over the years and had named Fain as her attacker.
In her statement, Faber said she did not make the man’s name public earlier because she thought she “could change the culture of sexual assault without needing to say his name” but no longer believes that to be to be the case.
The statute of limitations for most sex crimes in Washington, D.C., is 15 years.
In June, Faber published an online essay where she wrote she had met a man “at the Capitol” and spent the night out drinking and kissing and that both “drank too much.” After returning to his hotel room, he pinned her to the bed and pulled down her dress.
After the man raped her, she asked him for a kiss goodnight before leaving the room, she wrote.
Faber rejected that the kiss request was “not how girls act when they’ve been raped.” She wrote that she later called a friend, wondering if she should go to a hospital.
She said she didn’t report the rape because “I didn’t think anyone would believe me” or “care.”
Faber told KOWU-TV that she left her information technology job with the city of Seattle in 2017 because of a mental health breakdown. She said she was diagnosed with psychosis trigged by the buildup of traumas, including rape.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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