In November 2017 Craig Cheslog, then an officer in the California Democratic Party, was accused of raping a woman at a party executive board meeting in San Francisco in 2016 – but that’s not stopping him from weighing in on allegations against Brett Kavanaugh.

As one of my colleagues reported:

“Craig Cheslog, who is the Region 2 Director and an elected school board member, reportedly raped a party member at a November 2016 CDP Executive Board meeting. The woman didn’t report the rape at the time, but after she witnessed Cheslog behaving “in a sexually aggressive manner” in public during this fall’s Executive Board meeting came forward to other party leaders, who are now calling for his resignation.”

The public only learned of the allegation when a letter “filing a Statement of Charges to institute removal” of Cheslog from his post, signed by four senior party officials (including Eric Bauman of In-N-Out fame, to his credit) was leaked to a blogger. The letter described the charges (emphasis added):

We have received multiple reports that Mr. Cheslog acted in an inappropriate and sexually aggressive manner towards one of our members in the public areas of the Westin San Francisco Airport hotel. These inappropriate actions occurred late Saturday night, November 18, 2017, at the Winter 2017 CDP Executive Board Meeting. The level to which this activity advanced made a number of those in attendance uncomfortable and created an unwelcoming and unsuitable environment.

Further, witnessing this activity triggered a reaction in one of our members who subsequently reported to our Chair that Mr. Cheslog had raped her at a CDP Executive Board meeting the previous year (November 2016). While no legal adjudication has been reached in this matter, these appalling allegations paired with the inappropriate behavior observed and reported this past weekend lead us to conclude that Mr. Cheslog should no longer serve as an officer of the California Democratic Party.

Cheslog, then 46, who was also an elected school board member, resigned both of his political positions. He was also fired from his job with Common Sense Media.

A few weeks after that letter was sent, the woman who accused him of rape was identified as Maddy Dean, then 23 years old, a party activist and daughter of Solano County Office of Education board president Dana Dean. Maddy wrote about her decision on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/maddy.dean.18/posts/10213257516985499

In the LA Times article, Maddy references exploring what her legal options were. Since Cheslog wasn’t an employer of hers or a member of the legislature, there were few options as far as sexual harassment laws. It’s not clear whether she has pursued criminal charges, but it wouldn’t be unusual for a victim to not pursue criminal charges over a year later since physical evidence would likely not be available.

Despite this public shaming, Cheslog is now bold enough to tweet about Brett Kavanaugh. He won’t tweet an original thought from his account (give him a little credit for self-awareness, which is usually completely absent from Democrats), instead retweeting others’ criticisms.

Oh, Laurence. Have you done similar think-tweets about staffers for Bill Clinton or Sen. Menendez?

Pretty sure Dan Rather doesn’t have a lot of credibility here either, about truthful investigations.

As far as I can tell, there has been no criminal investigation of Cheslog or a civil lawsuit filed. He maintains his innocence. However, unlike Kavanaugh, his boorish behavior while a grown-a$$ man preying on a woman half his age (literally), was witnessed by numerous people, including party officials. It’s not a 35-year-old thing that only one person remembers.

Really, Craig, you should sit this one ALL.THE.WAY. out.