NEW YORK (AP) — A candidate for New York’s state senate said Tuesday she was sexually assaulted five years ago by a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an accusation the man denies.
Julia Salazar, 27, whose insurgent campaign has attracted wide attention, said on Twitter that she was speaking out about David Keyes because she was about to be “outed” as a sexual assault survivor. Salazar’s spokesman added that she had been contacted by a reporter for conservative news site The Daily Caller.
“Before this runs, I want to come forward and confirm that I was a victim of sexual assault by David Keyes — the Prime Minister of Israel’s spokesperson to foreign media,” said Salazar, who is seeking to unseat Brooklyn state Sen. Martin Dilan in Thursday’s Democratic primary.
Keyes later issued a statement to The Associated Press, saying: “This false accusation is made by someone who has proven to be repeatedly dishonest about her own life. This is yet another example of her dishonesty.”
Salazar wrote on Twitter that she felt the Daily Caller was trying to cast doubt upon her allegations.
“I strongly believe sexual assault survivors should not be outed in this way, and am saddened by the effect this story may have on other women,” she said.
The announcement came as Salazar, who is hoping to join a wave of challengers toppling establishment Democrats, has faced scrutiny over embarrassing episodes in her past and intense criticism for misrepresenting elements of her biography.
She gave public speeches and interviews saying she was an immigrant from Colombia when she was actually born in Florida. She also told people she had a degree from Columbia University when she did not graduate.
Journalists also revealed that Salazar was arrested in 2011 on charges of fraudulently trying to access the bank account of the estranged wife of a famous neighbor, baseball great Keith Hernandez.
The charges were never prosecuted and Salazar later sued Hernandez’s wife claiming she tried to frame her in the case. Kai Hernandez settled the lawsuit for $20,000.
Later Tuesday, a Wall Street Journal reporter, Shayndi Raice, tweeted that she also had a “terrible encounter with David Keyes.”
She didn’t provide details, and wrote that she wouldn’t describe herself as a “victim,” but said “The man had absolutely no conception of the word “no.”
“No matter how often I said no, he would not stop pushing himself on me,” she wrote.
“I was able to extricate myself quickly and it was a very brief and uncomfortable moment but I knew as I walked away I had encountered a predator.”
Salazar first made her accusations against Keyes in 2016 after he was named as a spokesman for Netanyahu.
In a Facebook post, now deleted, she wrote that Keyes had physically coerced her into a sexual act in 2013 at his New York City apartment after they met for coffee. A campaign spokesman, Michael Kinnucan, said it was a friends-only post that was up for less than 24 hours.
The allegation was reported in 2016 by Israeli media, but Salazar was not identified by name in those stories.
Keyes also denied the allegations then, saying “there was absolutely no coercion in our encounter,” the Times of Israel reported, citing Israel’s Army Radio.
Kinnucan said Salazar, who never reported the encounter with Keyes to police, was being forced to address the allegations publicly after being contacted by the Daily Caller.
The website posted a story later Tuesday confirming it had told the Salazar campaign it was preparing a story saying she was the woman who anonymously accused Keyes on social media in 2016.
The Daily Caller website reprinted an email they sent to Salazar’s campaign which read: “Why did she delete these accusations? Does she still stand by them? My deadline is in one hour.”
The Daily Caller said Salazar’s campaign confirmed she was the accuser without asking to withhold her identity.
“She gave public speeches and interviews saying she was an immigrant from Colombia when she was actually born in Florida. She also told people she had a degree from Columbia University when she did not graduate.”
Okay crazy lady it’s time to go join the Republicans cuz there’s no room for that crap in Dem party. My guess is somebody in the GOP is bankrolling this nut.
But is there really any difference between an immigrant from Colombia and one from Florida? In New York, both foreign countries.
This speaks to how difficult it is to prove sexual assault if the accuser’s credibility is poor in other areas of her life:
“If she lied about that, then she is lying about this.”
Possibly, but not necessarily.
Hmm certainly lends some credibility to what Salazar is alleging. However with her claims of being an immigrant and saying she graduated when she didn’t does create a bit of doubt on what she is saying.
I have no problem with the Keyes allegation. #MeToo is tough, especially w/o a police report.
– I do have a problem if she claimed being an immigrant (as versus an immigrant experience with her parents being new to the country.
– I have a huge problem with people claiming degrees that they don’t have. Again, real quotes are needed (I went to Columbia is a fudge that is understandable, if not clear, and different from I have a degree from Columbia)
I am hopeful that this is an outlier. But is anyone vetting these candidates? Are ‘progressives’ so disdainful of the ‘establishment’ that ideology trumps truth? FSM save us.
(Edit for format)