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Trump’s nominees are a message to survivors: Michigan AG Nessel

Online Niel November 27, 2024

Dana Nessel
| Contributor with comments

Every 68 secondsan American is sexually assaulted.

Only a third of the estimated 440,000 victims are over 12 years of age every year will ever reportoften because of negative emotions such as guilt, shame, and self-blame.

Survivors feel they won’t be believed, so why bother reporting, opening themselves up to ridicule, judgment and shame?

So what do we say to the victims of these brutal, life-altering crimes when our president-elect tries to elevate alleged colleagues to cabinet positions and other high levels of power in our government?

To lead the Department of Defense, Trump nominated Fox News personality Pete Hegseth, who settled the charge that he raped a woman and entered into a confidentiality agreement with the victim. To lead the Department of Health and Human Services, he nominated Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who was accused of groping a young woman who worked for him as a babysitter on several occasions. For Secretary of Education—responsible for ensuring schooling for our nation’s children—he nominated Linda McMahon, who was sued for criminal negligence for to enable the grooming and sexual abuse of children by the employees of his organization. And as the nation’s law enforcement officer, he nominated former Rep. Matt Gaetz — who withdrew from consideration last week — the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation following allegations that he paid minors for sex. And Trump still has more nominations to make.

Through these nominations, we are telling survivors of sexual assault that they don’t matter, that their trauma is meaningless, and that they should shut up.

And they will.

A message to survivors

These nominations reduce the often devastating trauma that affects victims for the rest of their lives to an unfortunate public relations hurdle that must be overcome by powerful people being elevated higher in our nation’s power structures. When the White House asks the people, the media, and the US Congress to overlook or ignore these allegations as mistakes or minor details relative to the nominees’ desirable ideologies or resumes, they are asking you to ignore the victims’ lifelong suffering them and so many others who already feel that justice is beyond them.

Those who will receive this message are not only victims, who will be discouraged from reporting, but also the judges and juries who will decide sexual assault cases in the criminal and civil courts and, perhaps most frighteningly, those on the front lines in the war on assault sexual: our law enforcement community.

Police officers tasked with receiving complaints and investigating these cases are just as likely to hear this message and may wonder if this abuse is worth their time or effort.

This in turn would further discourage victims from reporting, and for those who do, their complaints will be less likely to be taken seriously.

Perpetrators would go unpunished, encouraged to abuse again.

Communities would become less safe and more lives would be shattered.

The message sent by these cabinet elections is powerful and has a profound impact globally.

Taking survivors seriously is our job

At the Michigan Attorney General’s Department, the investigation and prosecution of sexual assault cases are our signature initiatives.

From the MSU and Larry Nassar investigations, our statewide clergy abuse investigation and Operation Survivor Justiceour staff starts from a material starting point of faithful victims and we continue our investigations from that perspective.

We treat these important cases from a victim-centered, offender-focused standpoint, using a trauma-informed lens in everything we do.

We keep hearing the same words from victims: “I was too scared to come forward. I blamed myself for this attack. Who would ever believe me?”

When the most powerful man in America undermines our work by broadcasting his disdain, contempt, and disdain for victims of sexual assault, it is nearly impossible for survivors of the victims to trust that the government is taking these claims seriously.

The chilling effect these nominations will have on reporting, regardless of whether the nominees are confirmed, is inevitable. The immeasurable effect of federal policies, defunding sexual abuse prosecutions, and reduced resources for survivors will likely be a repeat of President-elect Donald Trump’s first term.

From 2017 to 2020, Trump and his cabinet issued rules that made it harder to keep. sexual assaulters to justice on campuses, stopped regulation which would have addressed sexual assault against members of the health professions, opposed legislation that would have provided increased rights victims of sexual assaults in the military, and threatened to withdraw funding for sexual assault prevention from several cities because of disagreement with those cities’ policies.

Sexual assault survivors matter. We should start believing them.

Instead, our most powerful leaders tell the rest of the world to ignore, discredit and ignore them.

The public should be alarmed and call Trump out when he works to silence the voices of sexual assault victims.

Survivors should know that at the Michigan Attorney General’s Department, your voices will always be heard and your experiences, pain, and trauma will always matter to us.

Taking these complaints seriously is not optional. It’s our job.

Dana Nessel is the Attorney General of Michigan. Send a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters and we can publish it online and in print.