Morning Call has Fake News too.

MORNING CALL SMEARS MARTY NOTHSTEIN

REFUSES EVIDENCE OF VINDICATION

The Morning call ran a story yesterday, concerning sexual harassment allegations against Marty Nothstein.  These allegations were addressed by Nothstein. The accusations were made by a third party person within days of Nothstein's announcement for his candidacy for congress. The women named by the third party denied that such accusations were true. Nothstein has affidavits signed by these women denying their validity. The Morning call ran the story anyway. They would have liked to cross examine these women and drag their families through this ordeal to accomplish their political agenda. The real story is who is behind these false accusations.

In today's political climate, it has become acceptable that mere allegations are used to force people out of the political arena. It is a blatant attempt to control the candidates who run for office by the media. If you are the favored candidate of the media they will cover up the worst corruption, if you will do their or their supporters bidding you will be protected, if not, they will attempt to destroy you.

It has also been revealed that the lawyer involved with the initial allegations was connected to the same law firm that democratic candidate Susan Wild worked for. When you have no issues that you can win on, trash the other candidate. We have had it with those type of campaigns on the Federal level, but do not have to stand for those sleazy tactics here at home.

If the Morning Call had any honor or wished to preserve any credibility, they would run a front page apology, not just to Marty Nothstein, but to the citizens of the Lehigh Valley.

If candidate Wild had any honor she would also disavow any such tactics in this campaign. 

Below is yesterdays  press release from Marty Nothstein. 

August 17, 2018 

 Press Conference Statement of Marty Nothstein

Congressional Candidate Marty Nothstein, today offered the following statement at a Press Conference in Bethlehem Pennsylvania regarding a false accusation carried in a local newspaper. 

I’m here to respond to today’s newspaper report which basically repeats a false accusation while downplaying important facts.

On February 9, I was informed that SafeSport, the agency assigned to investigate misconduct allegations against athletes, had received an anonymous tip that I was engaged in some sort of sexual misconduct with female athletes 18 years earlier.

It turns out that USA Cycling had received an anonymous tip four months earlier, just days after I announced my candidacy for Congress. They then referred the matter to SafeSport. Such investigations are opened automatically after any misconduct complaint is made against an athlete.

Days after I learned of the SafeSport investigation, an anonymous person contacted Upper Macungie Township Police and made the same allegation, giving the same details.

Both Upper Macungie Township Police and the Lehigh County District Attorney’s office investigated this allegation and found it to be groundless. Let’s be clear: the very same facts, presented to law enforcement, were promptly investigated and found to be without merit.

So here’s where we are.

An anonymous tipster planted a clearly false allegation in hopes of triggering an investigation.

Tipsters then turned around and planted a story with the media that I was under investigation.

These days, that’s all it takes to smear someone.

The accusation is false. There are no accusers in this case. The women identified to investigators deny that any misconduct occurred.

Ordinarily, in a sexual misconduct investigation, the complaint comes from the victim. In this case, it was an anonymous third party, planting an allegation. The presumed victims not only have told investigators that no such thing happened, they provided signed affidavits and the women were willing to meet with reporters and confirm their written statements.

I repeatedly offered to show these affidavits to the reporters and they refused to even look at them.

The reporters have not been interested in getting at the truth or falsity of this accusation. They are content to report that there is an “investigation” into me. Despite reporting the existence of the investigation, by their own admission in today’s story, The Morning Call reporters admit they cannot determine any facts in the case.

From the onset, I offered to make myself available to the investigator from SafeSport.

Repeatedly, we were told they had no questions to ask. In one instance, the investigator said he had developed no credible information against me.

This anonymous smear was designed to destroy my livelihood, my candidacy, and my reputation. I’m not going to allow this to happen. It has affected my livelihood. Disrupted my campaign. And caused pain and worry in my family.

But this isn’t just about me.

These kinds of acts don’t just damage one candidate. They corrupt the entire political system by basically rigging elections by smear. And they certainly do no favors to the victims of real acts of sexual misconduct. When you use enough clearly false smears, you make it harder for women’s voices to be heard.

In this case, women were not listened to. In fact, The Morning Call reporters declined to so much as meet with them or examine their statements. Instead, we live in a time anonymous people in the shadows can spread false allegations and get them into the media, smearing not only me but harming the falsely named.

It should be noted here. I have absolutely no sanctions or disciplinary actions against me by either USA Cycling or SafeSport. Had there been any valid grounds for concern they would have acted on them.

The voices in the shadows are overpowering the truth and using cooperative reporters to do it.

I want to say to the voters of this district: these are false accusations, planted just days after I began my candidacy. The presumed “victims” themselves deny such a thing happened. It’s time to end this sort of politics. We should be talking about policy, not false rumors.