Just a few years ago, however, Democrats embraced Prout’s cause-an about-face the Prout family says is a betrayal. The Prout family has asked every Democratic senator on the Judiciary Committee to vote against Delaney’s nomination, athough they say they’ve been met with silence. Susan Prout, who cofounded a nonprofit aimed at spreading awareness about sexual assault called I Have the Right To, penned an op-ed arguing against the confirmation of Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh, and campaign finance records reviewed by the Free Beacon show the Prouts gave small donations to a number of Democratic politicians over the years. But they are now pressing Democratic senators and the White House to stay true to Biden’s campaign promise of ensuring "justice for survivors" The effort to kill Delaney’s nomination is not a partisan cause for the Prout family, who describe themselves as apolitical and have a history of supporting Democratic candidates and causes, including participation in the Trump-era Women’s March. So I think they felt very comfortable with this threat and thought if they made it, that we would … roll over."ĭelaney’s successful push to reveal Chessy Prout’s identity became a flashpoint in his hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month, with Republicans arguing that his conduct was unethical and did not even favorably serve his client's interests.ĭelaney testified on Capitol Hill that he never "intended to intimidate any of the parties to the case" and he is asking the Senate to put the incident in context-to " consider the totality of my record over nearly 30 years," he told the panel. "The school already knew that she faced death threats, rape threats from the internet trolls. "The motion that Michael Delaney filed on behalf of St Paul's School was really a veiled threat," said Alex Prout. Delaney represented the Boy Scouts and ultimately prevailed. When the Boy Scouts of America faced a lawsuit from victims of a former scout leader who molested over 100 boys, their names were never made public, though all of the victims were adults at the time of the lawsuit. Keeping victims of sex crimes anonymous at trial is hardly irregular. The school demanded access to Prout’s diary, threatened to interview her friends, and filed a motion to strip her anonymity at trial. Paul’s retained Delaney as counsel, and his tactics were aggressive from the outset. Paul’s filed by the Prouts, in which Chessy Prout-referred to as "Jane Doe"- alleged that the school had tolerated "ritual" sexual abuse by students. That accountability also included a civil suit against St. That settlement stemmed from Chessy Prout’s quest for accountability for that senior, Owen Labrie, who was found guilty in 2015 of misdemeanor sexual assault. Paul’s became one of the only schools in the country to enter into a settlement agreement with law enforcement in order to avoid potential criminal charges over what New Hampshire authorities called rampant "child endangerment," a blemish on the reputation of an institution that counts John Kerry, Robert Mueller, and Sen. "You've chosen the path that you wanted to take to make money off of survivors of sexual assault and defend these institutions." Delaney, you do not deserve to be in this position," Alex Prout said. Sitting alongside his wife, Susan, Alex Prout says that Delaney-having pushed successfully to unmask the identity of his daughter in a civil lawsuit surrounding the elite boarding school’s culpability for her sexual assault at the hands of an 18-year-old high-school senior-does not belong on the federal bench. "This is a time to do the courageous thing and withdraw this nomination," Alex Prout told the Washington Free Beacon. That has left it to the Prout family to make sure, in the words of Chessy’s father Alex Prout, that Delaney is nothing more than "an ambulance-chasing attorney." Jeanne Shaheen (D.)-who once lauded Prout’s transformation from a high-school student into a young activist-are nowhere to be found. Seven of the 11 Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee were no-shows for his hearing before the panel earlier this month. And his nomination to the First Circuit Court of Appeals has put Democrats in an awkward spot, caught between support for one of their party’s judicial nominees and support for survivors of sexual assault.įor now, they seem to have opted for the former, despite pleas from Prout’s parents to sink Delaney’s nomination. Now, five years after the Prouts settled with the school, President Joe Biden wants to make Delaney a federal judge.
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