Senator in 2010 deposition: 13-year-olds can consent to sex
Source: CTV News/AP
OKLAHOMA CITY - Before he became a leading voice for conservative causes on Capitol Hill, U.S. Senator James Lankford spent more than a decade as the director of youth programming at the Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center, a sprawling campground about 80 miles south of Oklahoma City that attracts more than 50,000 campers in grades six through 12 each year. The Republican lawmaker's tenure at the camp is a prominent feature of his political profile, noted in the first paragraph of his official Senate biography.
That experience is also coming under renewed scrutiny as the Southern Baptist Convention, which is affiliated with the group that owns the camp, faces a reckoning over its handling of sexual abuse cases. In 2009, while Lankford worked at the camp, the family of a 13-year-old girl sued a 15-year-old boy who was alleged to have had sex with her at the camp. Lankford, who was not in Congress at the time, is not alleged to have had any direct knowledge of the alleged assault, has not been accused of any wrongdoing and was not a defendant in the lawsuit, which was settled for an undisclosed amount before it was scheduled to go to trial.
But in a 2010 deposition in the case, given a week after he was elected to his first term in the U.S. House, Lankford testified that he believed a 13-year-old could consent to sex. "Yes, I think they can," Lankford told Kenyatta Bethea, a lawyer for the girl's family, according a 155-page transcript of the deposition obtained by The Associated Press. The age of consent in Oklahoma is 16, and although there is an exception in the law for minors between the ages of 14 and 17 who have sexual contact, there is no provision under which a 13-year-old could consent to sex. When Bethea pressed if his answer was still the same "if I ask you that question in terms of your position as a father," Lankford maintained his stance. "Yes, they can," he said.
Under additional questioning about whether he would allow his two daughters to consent to sex at the age of 13, Lankford gave a more expansive answer. "No, I would not encourage that at all," he said. "Could she make that choice? I hope she would not, but I would not encourage that in any way with my own daughter." It's unclear whether Lankford, who has no formal legal training, was aware of the legal age of consent at the time of his deposition. It's also uncertain whether any criminal charges were filed against the 15-year-old boy. Telephone messages left with Murray County District Attorney Craig Ladd were not returned.
Read more: https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/senator-in-2010-deposition-13-year-olds-can-consent-to-sex-1.5963398
He can join the Matt Gaetzs and Gymsuit Jordans of the world. He is up for reelection this year and unfortunately expected to win anyway.
This story is the perfect example of media suppression of pedophile "Republicans in Disarray®" stories.
IcyPeas
(21,856 posts)BumRushDaShow
(128,748 posts)done by Christopher Cruz CBS News.
They'll probably ditch this story quick, fast, and in a hurry.
IIRC on Jan. 6, he was in the middle of objecting to one of the state certifications when his compatriot thugs were breaking into the Capitol. He had to suspend and evacuate, after which the hoards took over the Senate chamber, swinging from the gallery, rifling through desks, defiling the dais and proudly sitting in the chair reserved for the President Pro-tem.
BradAllison
(1,879 posts)BumRushDaShow
(128,748 posts)madaboutharry
(40,203 posts)Explain this weirdness to me because I dont get it.
They want to control the most private and personal parts of the lives of other people because of moral and religious beliefs they allegedly hold, yet they are often the most perverse creepy, and hypocritical.
What is wrong with them?
Raven123
(4,813 posts)We need a heightened sense of awareness about this. When they start nonsensical assertions and accusations we need to look behind the facade and find out what they are hiding. I admit that I am so often stunned by the assertions/accusations that I dont think to do it. Instead I simply deny them. This is how they get away with it. My bad.
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)Wth is it with these freaks?
Traildogbob
(8,709 posts)Number one go to about every Dem, even those repubs that turn on em like the Arizon repug testifying last week that had a truck outside his house with a huge video stream calling HIM a pedo. Did this prick get a pardon for everything his who life like Gaetz? The Christian GQP is one fucked up cult. The real God (????) should send them a message that he is sick and tired of their phony shit dissing his name.
And the 13 year olds he convinced to let him fuck em, can not abort the pricks spawn. Its a blessing from god say the GQP.
mwb970
(11,356 posts)Ziggysmom
(3,406 posts)mantra, he told me. If dad were alive to see the petulant fascist we previously had in Washington, he'd have a conniption fit. What a POS Lankford is. 🤢
Joinfortmill
(14,409 posts)keithbvadu2
(36,740 posts)Republican Sexual Predators, Abusers, and Enablers Pt. 26
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/8/26/2048394/-Republican-Sexual-Predators-Abusers-and-Enablers-Pt-26
BumRushDaShow
(128,748 posts)Definitely well over due for a "Pt. 27"!
reACTIONary
(5,770 posts)... there is more to the story than that I don't think there is much wrong with it.
BumRushDaShow
(128,748 posts)I.e., there was a lawsuit and he testified as part of that being he was the Director of Programming for that camp where the alleged incident occurred.
Because the case was apparently "settled", there was no further action but then the question might be, were there are other incidents that generated lawsuits that were "settled" (or were overlooked by him) given he supposedly held this belief? This was just one case's deposition that AP managed to get a hold of (probably by FOI).
I think all of the investigations that the SBC's are doing might reveal more, just like how the Catholic Church's abuse cases have been combed through.
karynnj
(59,501 posts)meaning. One question here is whether EITHER person was old enough to legally "consent". The question should be, given both ages, whether this was consensual in the English language meaning.
However, if I and posters here ALL seem to know that there is an "age of consent", I am surprised that the Senator sounds like he simply answered as if the question meant did this specific 13 year old agree to have sex with the specific 15 year old. The follow up question went to his own daughter, not the legal side of it.
Because the case was settled, as you say there are many details we don't know.
Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)even though he was not in any way involved, and the 15 year old child should've been tried as adult and done like 10 years and then had to register as a sex offender the rest of his life.
Hey, I don't make the rules ...
pressbox69
(2,252 posts)Under the current and coming laws, if a Republiklan wants sex, he can just take it. Age doesn't matter to them. 7 to 77, boy or girl, all are low hanging fruit to their side.
IronLionZion
(45,410 posts)LudwigPastorius
(9,127 posts)SouthernDem4ever
(6,617 posts)since they always seem to win elections.
Jilly_in_VA
(9,962 posts)Did HIS 13 year old daughter come to him and say, "Daddy, I'm pregnant and Jimmy, the 15 year old from church camp is the father"? What did he do then?