Second woman accuses Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault

  • A woman said Friday that Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax raped her nearly two decades ago.
  • Watson's statement claims she was attacked by Fairfax in 2000 in a "premeditated and aggressive" manner while the two were students at Duke University.
  • Another woman, California university professor Vanessa Tyson, had recently accused Fairfax of sexual assault in an incident nearly 15 years earlier. He has unequivocally denied Tyson's accusation.

A woman said Friday that Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax had raped her nearly two decades ago.

Lawyers for that woman, Meredith Watson, made the accusation in a statement that also called on Fairfax to resign from office.

Another woman, California university professor Vanessa Tyson, had recently accused Fairfax of sexual assault in an incident nearly 15 years earlier. He has unequivocally denied Tyson's accusation.

Fairfax's office did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for a response to the second accusation. But his spokeswoman, Lauren Burke, told The Washington Post that "we're calling for an investigation on all of these matters." She said Fairfax would have further response later.

Watson's statement claims she was raped by Fairfax in 2000 in a "premeditated and aggressive" attack while they were both students at Duke University. The two were friends, but had never been romantically involved, according to the statement.

Watson's decision to come forward was spurred by "a strong sense of civic duty and her belief that those seeking or serving in public office should be of the highest character," her lawyers said in the document,

She is not seeking any money in damages, the statement claims.

A New York Times reporter said in a tweet that Watson has been employed as a "fundraising consultant."

Tyson, a politics professor at Scripps College in California, alleged that Fairfax had forced her to engage in oral sex with him in 2004, after they first engaged in "consensual kissing" in his hotel room in Boston.

Fairfax has said the encounter was consensual — a claim Tyson rejects — and that her accusation "simply is not true."


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