Here's an effort by the Mainstream Democratic party to smear a progressive
candidate with an inappropriate report. Eric
WITH NO ALLEGATION TO INVESTIGATE, UMASS CREEPILY PROBES ALEX MORSE’S ROMANTIC
LIFE INSTEAD
A university investigation found no policy violations by Morse — unsurprising
since he was accused of none — but more evidence of Democratic Party meddling.
[Eoin Higgins]<https://theintercept.com/staff/eoin-higgins/>[Ryan
Grim]<https://theintercept.com/staff/ryangrim/>
Eoin Higgins<https://theintercept.com/staff/eoin-higgins/>, Ryan
Grim<https://theintercept.com/staff/ryangrim/>
January 18 2021, 6:06 p.m.
A RECENTLY RELEASED
report<https://www.scribd.com/document/490617947/UMass-Alex-Morse-Investigation-Final-Investigative-Report-Exhibits#from_embed?campaign=SkimbitLtd&ad_group=126006X1587340X5a11c6945ada6659f2afd292d48c3a32&keyword=660149026&source=hp_affiliate&medium=affiliate>
by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst has added new evidence of the
state Democratic Party’s involvement in the public attack on Alex Morse just
ahead of his primary against Rep. Richard Neal. It also found that Morse,
formerly an adjunct professor at the school, did not violate university
policies, yet the report still delved deeply into Morse’s private dating life
with other adults.
In early August, just a few weeks prior to the election against Neal, chair of
the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, a number of college students made
vague accusations of impropriety against Morse, the youngest and first openly
gay mayor of Holyoke.
The involvement of state party officials, who coordinated with the
Massachusetts College Democrats to accuse Morse of sexual impropriety, was
first
revealed<https://theintercept.com/2020/08/14/alex-morse-richie-neal-state-party/>
by The Intercept and later confirmed by an internal
review<https://theintercept.com/2020/11/11/massachusetts-democrats-dsc-morse-bickford/>
by the Massachusetts Democratic Party. The new report, however, includes
emails and text messages indicating that party attorney Jim Roosevelt took a
more active role in the dissemination of the smear than previously known. It
also reveals that party leaders were more involved in walking students through
media and legal strategies than they had previously admitted. In an interview
with The Intercept, Roosevelt denied the allegations; Mass Dems Executive
Director Veronica Martinez implied in an email that the new report exonerated
party leadership.
The UMass report, issued on January 13 by the law firm Zalkind Duncan &
Bernstein LLP, found not only no evidence of wrongdoing by Morse, but also
that he was not accused of anything that would have violated the school policy.
Still, the report left open a vague possibility that the mayor had violated
“the University’s general expectations for the conduct of its employees.”
Morse, who has acknowledged having consensual relationships with students in
the area, has never been accused of inappropriate relationships with students
he taught. The university only bars relationships between faculty and students
whom they supervise or teach — not all students generally. In a statement,
UMass said that the school is reviewing the investigation’s findings to see if
revisions to its consensual relationships policy are warranted. Morse, over the
course of several years through fall 2019, taught a once-a-week class on
government. There are nearly 30,000 students enrolled at UMass Amherst.
<https://theintercept.com/newsletter/?source=Article-In&referrer_post_id=341385>
Join Our Newsletter
Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you.
I’m in
The university said publicly that Morse declined to participate in the
investigation, but did not mention that the reason was because the university
told him it was not investigating any particular allegation. Rather, the school
launched a general probe into his dating life. Given that there were no
specific allegations to investigate, Morse told The Intercept that he is
considering legal action against the university for its decision to conduct an
investigation into his behavior.
“The investigation was launched to conclude whether or not I violated policy or
whether or not there was necessary evidence to support a Title IX
investigation,” Morse said. “That was the scope of the investigation and the
conclusions were reached that neither were met. So anything else is erroneous
and irrelevant and an intrusion on my personal life.”
Morse added that the report relies on the word of “UMass Democrats that have
been documented to have a clear agenda” against him.
Investigators made a detailed exploration into the psychology of the students
who ultimately launched the attack on Morse, saying that a key figure in the
scandal did not find his interactions online with Morse remotely problematic
until other students convinced him in hindsight that they were. A second
student also told investigators that he considered his interactions platonic
and innocent but that they took on a different connotation when put in the
context of rumors being spread by other students.
The report’s authors included trivial information they had collected. “Witness
Three reports that he was later told by other students that Morse gave him a
‘look’ when he entered the [October] event (indicating romantic or sexual
interest). Witness Three did not observe anything of that nature,” the report
found fit to inform the public.
<https://theintercept.com/2020/09/02/alex-morse-primary-result-richard-neal/>
[https://theintercept-static.imgix.net/usq/2abbd0ae-f930-43f5-9775-5ff17213cbd9/2abbd0ae-f930-43f5-9775-5ff17213cbd9.bin?auto=compress,format&cs=srgb&dpr=2&h=440&w=440&fit=crop&crop=faces%2Cedges&_=c9254a7b5cf494b31f31a4380180347f]
Related
Massachusetts Hopeful Alex Morse Couldn’t Overcome Homophobic Smear
Matt Walsh, a member of the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee and a
board member of the Bay State Stonewall Democrats, said the exoneration of
Morse is welcomed, but that in his view, the manner in which the report was
written lingered on salacious details and sensationalized the mayor’s private
life.
“I expected an official investigative report by a state university to be an
objective assessment of facts, not a tabloid-style gossip piece,” said Walsh.
“I’m glad UMass cleared Morse of wrongdoing, but they could have done so
without legitimizing homophobic tropes that paint gay men as ‘creepy’ for
engaging in consensual relationships.”
THE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST Morse — first reported by the UMass Daily Collegian
newspaper<https://dailycollegian.com/2020/08/college-democrats-allege-inappropriate-misconduct-between-holyoke-mayor-alex-morse-and-college-students/>
— relied on Tinder and Instagram messages from Morse to students at UMass over
the past few years. Members of the College Democrats of Massachusetts and the
UMass College Democrats accused Morse in a leaked letter of abusing his power
as mayor and a part-time instructor at the school to solicit sex from young men
who were students on campus, and decided to ban him from future events. But the
UMass report’s findings do not show any impropriety — and, if anything,
indicate that Morse was careful to stay away from even the hint of abuse of
power or inappropriate relationships.
The Intercept’s previous
reporting<https://theintercept.com/2020/08/12/alex-morse-college-democrats-chats/>
revealed that some students had planned to entrap and expose Morse in order to
do political damage to the mayor and secure themselves internships with Neal.
Neal has denied any involvement in the scheme. Campaign spokesperson Peter
Panos told The Intercept in an email that the latest report makes the
congressman’s innocence clear.
“This report confirms what Chairman Neal has always said, that he and his staff
had nothing to do with these allegations,” said Panos. “We commend the
University for their thorough investigation into the facts.”
The report doesn’t conclude anything either way on Neal’s involvement, but does
note that there is no evidence of it.
Screenshots of text messages uncovered by investigators show that students also
saw Morse’s position as a mayor and congressional candidate as a possible
avenue for volunteer and internship opportunities.
[Exhibit-13]
Screenshot of Exhibit 13 from the UMass report.
Screenshot: University of Massachusetts
The report notes that Morse popped up as a “potential match” on Tinder for some
students 18 and up, though most students did not receive an indication of
interest from the mayor; in Tinder parlance, he did not “swipe right” on their
profiles. Witness One in September 2019 “matched” with Morse on Tinder months
after first meeting him at a spring event hosted by the UMass College Democrats.
As the report explains:
The two exchanged messages via Tinder, but did not arrange to meet in person.
After the exchange of a couple of messages over a few days, Witness One sent
Morse a photo from the event where they first met and asked of Morse,“now, do
you remember me?”
Morse replied “yes,” and promptly un-matched with Witness One.
Witness One was not made uncomfortable by the interaction, he told the
investigators, but after hearing from peers that the age difference between
them was problematic, “he became discomfited by the fact that his attraction to
Morse stemmed from the ‘allure’ of Morse’s role as a Mayor, which Witness One
considered a position of power.”
Holyoke, a town of just 40,000 where Morse served as mayor after being elected
at the age of 21, is a 30-minute drive from UMass Amherst.
Morse and Witness One connected later on Instagram and exchanged messages for
several weeks. Around Halloween, Morse messaged Witness One to tell him the
costume photo he posted was “cute.” Witness One replied, “Thanks!” Witness One
told investigators that he found the message flirtatious.
Witness Three met Morse at an October 2019 event after the mayor had announced
his run for Congress. The two exchanged contact information and connected on
Instagram — a few non-campaign-related, but nonsexual, exchanges followed.
The report includes a large amount of gossip, including one of the key
witnesses questioning why the other witnesses were so bothered by matching with
a 30-year-old on Tinder after necessarily having set their age ranges to show
interest in men of that age: “Witness Three states that both Witnesses One and
Two expressed discomfort with Morse’s outreach to them on Tinder. While Witness
Three understood their discomfort, he also questioned why a college student
would set their Tinder preference to include matches in Morse’s age range if,
in fact, they felt that matching with someone Morse’s age was ‘creepy.’”
The report makes clear that at least some of the allegations against Morse that
later went public were rumor-driven group think, as is often the case in a
college setting.
Throughout the exchanges, students talked among themselves about Morse and
their perception of his interest in them, whether to reciprocate it, whether it
could be leveraged for career-boosting moves down the line, and what effect the
revelation of it could have on his campaign.
After the College Democrats event in October 2019, the group told investigators
that they became concerned about Morse’s conduct and rumors about sexual
contact. The following April, some members of the group began reaching out to
journalists, as The Intercept previously
reported<https://theintercept.com/2020/08/20/alex-morse-accusations-richard-neal-record-massachusetts/>.
The UMass report makes clear that at least some of the allegations against
Morse that later went public were rumor-driven group think, as is often the
case in a college setting: “Witness Three noted that, but for the fact that he
later learned of Morse having messaged other students on Tinder and Instagram,
he would not have interpreted Morse’s outreach to him on Instagram as evidence
of interest in pursuing a physical or romantic relationship.”
Those concerns extended beyond the school’s group. Student A, a student at
UMass, said a friend of hers had had sexual contact with Morse and later felt
uncomfortable because of the “power dynamic.” Witness One described her to
investigators as “especially adamant that the group needed to go public with
what they knew.”
Student A wanted to take the statement to Twitter in July and went so far as to
work with Witness One to draft a statement to post to the site, though she
ultimately declined to do so.
ACCORDING TO The Intercept’s previous reporting, the report produced for the
Mass
Dems<https://theintercept.com/2020/11/11/massachusetts-democrats-dsc-morse-bickford/>
by attorney Cheryl Jacques, and the emails and text messages reproduced in the
new UMass report, the leadership of the UMass College Democrats and the College
Democrats of Massachusetts took their allegations against Morse to the state
party. College Democrats of Massachusetts President Hayley Fleming reached out
to Massachusetts Democrats Chair Gus Bickford and Executive Director Veronica
Martinez for guidance as the group prepared to bar Morse from future meetings.
Bickford and Martinez pointed the students to their attorney Jim Roosevelt.
Roosevelt, an attorney with Verrill
Law<https://www.verrill-law.com/james-roosevelt-jr/> and a grandson of former
President Franklin Roosevelt, has been involved with Democratic politics at the
state and national level for decades. In addition to being the Mass Dems
lawyer, Roosevelt is a co-chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Rules
and Bylaws Committee and was CEO of Tufts Health Plan for 10 years.
Evidence in the new UMass report implicates Roosevelt in the writing of a
letter for the College Democrats to send out to chapters. As one student said
in a text on July 29 to other members of the CDMA executive board, Roosevelt
advised the students through Bickford and Martinez that “if we want to move
forward on leaking it to the press, someone would contact BLANK and tell him
(on the record but unattributable so that their name doesn’t get published)
that the CDMA eboard voted on this and sent it to the CM.” The full message
exchange is attached to the report.
[Exhibit-22]
Screenshot of Exhibit 22 from the report.
Screenshot: University of Massachusetts
In an interview with The Intercept, Roosevelt said that the texts and prior
allegations were wrong.
“It’s not clear to me what lawyer they’re talking about there, because that was
not my advice,” said Roosevelt.
The only other lawyer that the students talked to, according to the Jacques
report, was Andrea Kramer, who advised the students to talk to Morse on the
phone if necessary but that the allegations could lead to “legal problems.”
The Intercept asked Roosevelt if there was a third attorney involved.
“I don’t know,” he replied.
[Exhibit-41]
Screenshot of Exhibit 4 from the report.
Screenshot: University of Massachusetts
The report includes an August 6 email detailing Roosevelt’s alleged role:
This is the statement that Mass Dems’ lawyer wrote for us and recommended we
share with chapters:
“The boards of college Democrats of Massachusetts, UMass Amherst Democrats, and
Amherst College Democrats have voted to notify Mayor Alex Morse and his
campaign that he is no longer welcome at their events. This action was taken at
the request of student members of the organizations. It is not based on his
ideology or any current or past political contest. It is based on his past
interactions with these students.”
Asked about it by The Intercept, Roosevelt emphatically denied any involvement
in writing the statement.
“I did not write it,” Roosevelt said. “I did discuss it with them, so it’s not
literally correct, but I did discuss it with them — but this was after the
letter to Alex Morse and his response confirming all the allegations had
already been in the press.”
The Intercept pointed out that the email is dated August 6 and that the
allegations were not made public until the next day, August 7.
“Well, then, what the students told me was that they had already heard from
reporters that it was going to be in the press the next morning,” Roosevelt
said.
Within the state party, those involved in the scandal faced no consequences.
Bickford was resoundingly reelected by party members to serve another four
years as chair in November.
“To me, it says that many longer time members don’t care what he did,” Walsh
told The Flashpoint
newsletter<https://theflashpoint.substack.com/p/mass-dems-overwhelmingly-reelect>
in November. “They don’t care that he acted unethically, and they don’t care
that he broke the bylaws. At the end of the day, he’s the devil they know. No
matter what he does, they prefer him to a progressive who would change the
status quo they rely on.”
Bickford did not respond to requests for comment. Martinez, in an emailed
statement, appeared to claim that the report exonerated the state party.
“The UMass report shows that some of those involved have made conflicting
statements about their interactions with the Party,” Martinez wrote. “The Party
is committed to repairing the damage done as a result of this ordeal.”
But DSC member Nancy Stenberg, whose district includes Morse’s home, told The
Intercept that the new report’s findings only served to confirm the bad
behavior by party leadership — and are yet another sign that nothing will
fundamentally change at the top.
“It has been business as usual from Gus Bickford since his declaration in
November that he would work to repair the damage that his actions caused,” said
Stenberg.
For the mayor, the emails and texts just confirm what he already knows to be
true.
The report, Morse said, “just offers further evidence that there was a direct
collaboration between the Mass Dems leadership and Jim Roosevelt and these
students to time this letter and allegations as close to the election as
possible to cause maximum impact.”
