Trent Lott Goes To Bat For Frats In Wake Of Rolling Stone’s UVA Story

Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) has been hired to lobby Congress on behalf of a group of fraternities for changes in how schools address sexual assault on campus, Politico reported Sunday.

“Congress needs to take a comprehensive approach to fixing these problems so that every case is handled in a manner that is fair, balanced and provides the full measure of constitutional protections to all parties,” Lott said in a statement, as quoted by Politico.

It’s not clear from Politico’s report which fraternities retained Lott, who was once the president of the University of Mississippi’s Sigma Nu chapter, and his firm Squire Patton Boggs.

And Greek leaders are now pushing back against the University of Virginia’s decision to suspend all fraternity and sorority activity until Jan. 9, after Rolling Stone published a blockbuster article describing how a then-freshman student, Jackie, was allegedly gang-raped at the school’s Phi Kappa Psi house.

The Fraternity and Sorority Political Action Committee, the National Panhellenic Conference, and the North American Interfraternity Conference issued a joint statement Sunday calling on UVA to reinstate the organizations. They also demanded the university publicly apologize for its actions and “outline what steps it will take to restore the reputation of our groups and students at UVA.”

In the weeks since Rolling Stone’s report came out, questions have raised about Jackie’s account. The magazine ultimately apologized for running it on Friday.