The two Justins were sworn in again and are back representing their constituents in Memphis and Nashville. But… Scotty Campbell, vice chair of the House Republican Caucus, has been driven out of office and officially resigned from the General Assembly yesterday. Campbell represented Johnson County in the very northeast tip of the state where Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee meet. It’s a poor, almost all white area that hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since before the Republican Party was founded! Hillary won 15% of the vote there are Biden won 16%. Alcohol was prohibited in the county until 2018. (See Steve Earle’s hit song Copperhead Road.) Part of his district is also in Sullivan County, slightly whiter, but where Hillary and Biden did a smidge better— 20% and 23% respectively.
A professional wresting promoter, local hate talk radio host and a Baptist, Campbell first served in the legislature in 2011. In 2020 he was elected without Democratic opposition, not because they approved of him, but because it’s just a hopeless hellhole of a district.
Recently he was concerned that the anti-drag queen bill, which he eventually voted for, might be too restrictive, asking “If we're having a professional wrestling show at a county fair, and some promoter decides to have a bra-and-panties match, is that potentially a crime under this legislation?” He had no questions when it came to removing Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson and voted to expel all three of them.
Phil Williams, reporting for Channel 5 in Nashville, wrote that Campbell resigned about six hours after the channel publicly confronted him about his sexual harassment case, having been found guilty of predatory sexual behavior towards two interns. Scott Campbell is not known to be a drag queen.
Despite accusations of sometimes extremely vulgar comments and other inappropriate advances, Republicans did not remove the 39-year-old East Tennessee lawmaker from his leadership position nor from his committee assignments.
But taxpayers are paying for his actions.
NewsChannel 5 has learned that potentially thousands of dollars have been spent to protect one victim, relocating her from the downtown apartment building where she and Campbell both had apartments, shipping her furniture back home in another part of the state and placing her in a downtown hotel for the remainder of her internship.
Legislative officials refused to say how much they've paid out, saying that information is confidential.
…"I had consensual, adult conversations with two adults off property," he insisted.
"I think conversations are consensual once that is verbally agreed to. If I choose to talk to any intern in the future, it will be recorded."
But a four-member ethics subcommittee, composed of two Republicans and two Democrats, came to a different conclusion, according to a memorandum dated March 29 that was sent to House Speaker Cameron Sexton.
"Based on the completed staff investigation, the Ethics Subcommittee finds that Representative Campbell violated the Policy" against workplace discrimination and harassment, the memo says.
…Under the Tennessee General Assembly's own rules, however, quietly placing that vaguely worded memo in a representative's personnel file is the only action that the ethics subcommittee can take upon a finding that he has engaged in improper conduct.
Ethics subcommittee members are also barred from publicly discussing their proceedings.
…Legislative interns are generally students from Tennessee colleges and universities. NewsChannel 5 is withholding the name, exact age and university of the victim in the sexual harassment investigation to protect her identity.
The woman declined to comment for this story.
But in an email, given to NewsChannel 5 Investigates by a family member, the victim provided a detailed account to officials at her university about her experiences with the Republican leader.
For example, after seeing her and another 19-year-old female intern entering her apartment at the nearby Capitol Towers, the woman describes how Campbell later "made comments about how ... he was in his apartment imagining that we were performing sexual acts on one another and how it drove him crazy knowing that was happening so close to him."
"I uncomfortably explained that that was not happening," she recounts, "and he insisted that he knew it was and asked me to tell him about it.
"I explained that she is my friend, and he proceeded to describe how sexually attractive he finds her," referring to the 19-year-old intern.
That 19-year-old female intern is believed to be the second person who complained.
In response to NewsChannel 5's questions, Campbell denied that any such conversations ever occurred.
"That's not true," he insisted.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked, "So she's just making that up?"
"Yes," he said quietly.
The woman's email says Campbell repeatedly made comments about wishing "he had someone with whom he could just cuddle" and how "he is very, very lonely."
On March 15, the victim recalls, she went to his apartment to return a wrench that she had borrowed.
"He proceeded to ask how many men I've slept with," says the email to university officials.
"I told him zero, and he insisted that I was lying and told me not to lie. He then proceeded to ask how many women I've slept with and said he bets girls go crazy over me."
Then, the victim says, Campbell offered to give her cannabis gummies to see her tattoos and piercings.
"I told him absolutely not, and he begged me for several hugs," her email says.
"I was getting progressively more afraid and uncomfortable. He then reached out his hand towards me and grabbed me around my neck.
"I recoiled and said I felt sick and immediately left. That was the last night I ever spoke with or saw him. I blocked his number after that."
House Speaker Cameron Sexton, who has his own ethics case right now, confirmed Thursday afternoon Campbell had sent in his letter of resignation. The Ethics Committee findings on Campbell, last month, were covered up with the help of Sexton.
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