Five friends of Vanessa Tyson, the woman accusing Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault, have confirmed to The New York Times she previously told them about the alleged incident.
Tyson came forward on Wednesday to describe in detail her claim that Fairfax sexually assaulted her at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. In a statement, she said that she initially did not tell anyone about the alleged assault due to a feeling of "deep humiliation and shame" but began doing so beginning in 2017.
The Times now reports that in interviews, "five people said that Dr. Tyson told them over the last two years that she had been sexually assaulted in an encounter at the convention, and that her account was consistent with her public statement this week." Three of the sources, the report said, confirmed Tyson specified either that the man who assaulted her was Fairfax or that he was a lieutenant governor or politician.
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In one instance, she reportedly talked about the assault at a luncheon while in a Stanford fellowship program, not mentioning Fairfax but saying the assault happened at the DNC and that the perpetrator was a successful politician. A fellow in the program told the Times her story lined up with the statement, while another fellow said it was "clearly a traumatic experience" for her to talk about. Scripps College, where Tyson is a professor, also released a statement to the Times saying she "shared with several members of the Scripps community the details about a 2004 sexual assault" which "are consistent" with what she has described this past week.
Fairfax has denied assaulting Tyson, saying in a statement they had a "consensual encounter."
