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Donald Trump Has Been Subpoenaed Following a Woman's Sexual Assault Allegations


In the wake of a barrage of sexual assault and harassment allegations made against disgraced Hollywood mega-producer Harvey Weinstein—ones that show no sign of slowing—there’s more news on the allegations front, now pertaining to President Donald Trump and his upsetting history with women. Summer Zervos, a former contestant on Trump’s reality show The Apprentice, alleged last October—shortly after the “grab them by the pussy” tape was leaked—that she met Trump in a Beverly Hills hotel 10 years ago to talk about a job at the Trump Organization. There, she says, he kissed her and grabbed her. Trump called her a liar, and she promptly sued him for defamation, calling in famous women’s rights lawyer Gloria Allred to help. Now, according to Buzzfeed’s report, her lawyers have subpoenaed his campaign—and the scope of documents that they’re requesting could shed light on a lot.

The subpoena was first filed in March—though it just showed up in court files last month—and Zervos’ lawyers are asking for all of the campaign’s documents that not only relate to her, but “all documents concerning any accusations that were made during Donald J. Trump’s election campaign for president, that he subjected any woman to unwanted sexual touching and/or sexually inappropriate behavior.” Basically, Trump’s campaign is requested to turn over any documents that have anything to do at all with any of the women who alleged during the election season that Trump groped them. The subpoena names at least 10 women, but the actual total could be more than a dozen. It also asks for any documents from the campaign that have to do with the Access Hollywood tape, as well as any documents that pertain to Trump denying any of the allegations.

Trump’s team has disputed all of this and even tried to shut down Zervos’ lawsuit in July—his lawyers claimed that presidents can’t have civil suits brought against them while in office and that the suit’s goal is to find ammunition to impeach him. Whether the suit will be dismissed as a result, however, hasn’t been decided yet.

Until it is, the subpoena can’t go into action. Trump’s team has said that it’s too broad to be justified and that it’s just intended to harass the president.

Whether the suit—and subpoena–will be allowed to proceed won’t be decided until well after Halloween. Trump’s team has to file a reply by October 31 to Allred’s filed opposition of Trump’s team’s motion to dismiss the civil suit (did you get all of that?). And until Trump files that last reply, the date for the actual hearing (about whether to toss the suit or not) doesn’t get set. And it’s not until after the hearing that we’ll get an answer about the subpoena.

Whew. All of this amounts to a lot of legal drama and a lot of paperwork, but what we do know is that some very interesting disclosures could be ahead—so stay tuned.

Related Stories:
A Timeline of Donald Trump’s Inappropriate History With Women
Donald Trump Bragged About Groping Women in a Disturbing New Video



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A Comprehensive List of the Women Who Have Accused Harvey Weinstein of Sexual Harassment or Assault


In the wake of an explosive report in The New York Times on October 5 detailing decades of accused sexual harassment and assault by Hollywood powerhouse Harvey Weinstein, dozens of women have come forward to share their own stories. By Sunday, news broke that the legendary producer had been fired by his board of directors.

Here, we’ve compiled the full list of the women who have accused Harvey Weinstein of harassment or sexual assault—from famous actresses to costume designers. The stories often follow a chillingly familiar pattern—one in which the producer would summon women to a hotel room, alone—and since the 1990s, at least eight women have settled claims with Weinstein. Though Weinstein’s legal team has denied the claims (“Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein,” a spokesperson said in a statement), the fallout from the scandal continues to expand. On October 10, Weinstein’s wife of nearly 10 years, Georgina Chapman, announced she was leaving him.

This post will be updated as women come forward with their stories.

Gwyneth Paltrow

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Gwyneth Paltrow

Paltrow told The New York Times that she met Weinstein for a meeting at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills when she was 22. The Goop founder had recently been cast as the lead role in Emma and shooting for the film had yet to begin. According to Paltrow, Weinstein placed his hands on the actress and tried to get her to accompany him to his bedroom for a massage. She said no and subsequently told her boyfriend at the time, Brad Pitt, what had happened. Pitt apparently later confronted Weinstein, and Paltrow claims the producer then told her not to mention the incident to anyone. “I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified,” the actress told the Times. “I thought he was going to fire me.”

Eva Green
In a statement to Variety, Green, the star of Casino Royale, Sin City, and Penny Dreadful, alleges Weinstein “behaved inappropriately” when they met to talk business in Paris—resulting in her having to “push him off.” “I got away without it going further, but the experience left me shocked and disgusted,” she added in her statement. “I have not discussed this before because I wanted to maintain my privacy, but I understand it is important to do so as I hear about other women’s experiences. Women are often condemned when they speak out and their personal reputations tarnished by association. I salute the great bravery of the women who have come forward. We should recognize that this sort of behavior exists everywhere and is not unique to the entertainment industry. The exploitation of power is ubiquitous. This behavior is unacceptable and needs to be eliminated.”

Angelina Jolie

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PHOTO: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin

Angelina Jolie

In an email to The New York Times, Jolie wrote, “I had a bad experience with Harvey Weinstein in my youth, and as a result, chose never to work with him again and warn others when they did.” She added, “This behavior toward women in any field, any country, is unacceptable.”

Lauren Sivan
Sivan, a TV reporter, said that Weinstein masturbated in front of her in a secluded hallway of a New York club. According to the Huffington Post, Sivan claimed “Weinstein ejaculated quickly into a potted plant that was in the vestibule and then proceeded to zip up his pants, and they walked back into the kitchen.”

Mira Sorvino

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PHOTO: David Livingston/Getty Images

Mira Sorvino

The Academy Award-winning actress told The New Yorker that she had to “ward [Weinstein] off” after he made an advance on her in a hotel room in the 1990s. Later, she claimed, Weinstein made a light-night call to Sorvino saying he wanted to discuss marketing options for one of their film projects. She offered to meet him at a hotel; he, instead, showed up at her apartment. When she told Weinstein that her new boyfriend was coming over (in actuality, he was a friend of Sorvino’s she had asked to pretend to be her partner), the producer allegedly “became dejected and left.”

Angie Everhart
The former *Sports Illustrated” model said Weinstein masturbated in front of her during the Cannes Film Festival over a decade ago.
“This isn’t really easy to talk about,” she told TMZ. “I was on a friend’s boat. Harvey walked in, walked in front of me, took his pants down, did his thing, exited on the floor, if you know what I mean, pulled his pants back up, said ‘You’re a really nice girl. Don’t tell anybody about this,’ and left.” She also said when she was taking a nap, she woke up to find him standing over her. “I told people on the boat. I told people at the dinner I was at. Everybody was like, ‘Oh, that’s just Harvey,’” she said. “When I talked about it before, nobody listened and now people are listening and … I’m glad people are listening so it doesn’t happen anymore because it’s not OK.”

Rosanna Arquette

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PHOTO: VALERIE MACON/Getty Images

Rosanna Arquette

Arquette spoke with both The New York Times and The New Yorker about her experience with Weinstein, in both cases detailing the same incident. According to Arquette, Weinstein had scheduled a meeting with her at The Beverly Hills Hotel in the 1990s and was wearing nothing but a bathrobe when she arrived. He said he was experiencing neck pain, and when the actress offered a recommendation for a masseuse, he grabbed her hand and thrust it at his crotch. Arquette says she refused his advance, to which Weinstein replied that she was making a “huge mistake.” The actress replied that she would “never be that girl.”

Liza Campbell
Campbell, a British artist and writer, told The Sunday Times that Weinstein asked her to “jump in the bath” with him.

Ashley Judd

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PHOTO: CJ Rivera/Getty Images

Ashley Judd

Judd went on the record with The New York Times for its incredible report on Weinstein, telling reporters she met Weinstein at the Peninsula Hotel in the 1990s for what she thought would be a breakfast meeting. Instead, she claims, Weinstein was wearing a bathrobe when she arrived at this hotel room. The producer allegedly asked if Judd would watch him shower or let him give her a massage. As Judd told the Times, she remembered thinking, “How do I get out of the room as fast as possible without alienating Harvey Weinstein?”

Emma de Caunes
At a lunch meeting in a Paris hotel, de Caunes told *The New Yorker that Weinstein went to the bathroom and came out naked. According to de Caunes, the producer then demanded she lie on the bed with him.

Kate Beckinsale

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Kate Beckinsale

In an Instagram post, Beckinsale described an incident with Weinstein that occurred when she was only 17 years old. “I was called to meet Harvey Weinstein at the Savoy hotel when I was 17,” the actress wrote. “I assumed it would be in a conference room, which was very common.”

She continued: “When I arrived, reception told me to go to his room. He opened the door in his bathrobe. I was incredibly naive and young and it did not cross my mind that this older, unattractive man would expect me to have any sexual interest in him. After declining alcohol and announcing that I had school in the morning, I left, uneasy but unscathed.”

She then claimed that, during a conversation with the producer years later, Weinstein could not remember if he had assaulted her.

“A few years later he asked me if he had tried anything with me in that first meeting. I realized he couldn’t remember if he had assaulted me or not,” Beckinsale wrote. “I had what I thought were boundaries—I said no to him professionally many times over the years—some of which ended up with him screaming at me, calling me a cunt, and making threats, some of which made him laughingly tell people, ‘Kate lives to say no to me.'”

Louisette Geiss
At a press conference, Geiss said she met Weinstein at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. According to Geiss, the two went to a restaurant together before heading to Weinstein’s office for a meeting to discuss screenwriting opportunities. There, Geiss says, Weinstein began masturbating in front of her and said if she stayed and watched he would greenlight her project.

Melissa Sagemiller

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PHOTO: Donato Sardella/Getty Images

Melissa Sagemiller

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Sagemiller detailed three encounters with Weinstein during the course of her work on the 2000 film Get Over It. First, Sagemiller described a lunch arranged by one of Weinstein’s assistants in which the producer’s conduct was “pretty inappropriate in terms of just being very flirty.” Later, Sagemiller was invited to Weinstein’s hotel to discuss the film script. According to Sagemiller, Weinstein made advances toward her and asked for a massage. When she tried to leave, he refused to let her go unless he kissed him. And finally, after production wrapped, Weinstein allegedly “ordered airport personnel to deliver her to his private plane, despite her protests and separately scheduled flight.”

Dawn Dunning
The 24-year-old actress told The New York Times she went to meet Weinstein for a meal, but when she was sent up to his hotel suite, Weinstein greeted her in a bathrobe and told her that he would cast her in three films if she had three-way sex with him. When she refused, she says he told her “You’ll never make it in this business.” Dunning is now a costume designer.

“He’s a big guy. He overpowered me,” Evans told The New Yorker. “I just sort of gave up.”

After the alleged incident, Evans said Weinstein continued to call her. She added that the encounter seemed to have a “routine quality.”

“It feels like a very streamlined process,” Evans told The New Yorker. “Female casting director, Harvey wants to meet. Everything was designed to make me feel comfortable before it happened. And then the shame in what happened was also designed to keep me quiet.”

Ambra Battilana Gutierrez

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PHOTO: GIUSEPPE CACACE/Getty Images

Ambra Battilana Gutierrez

Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez told The New Yorker that she met with Weinstein at his New York office in 2015 and that the producer grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt. She reported the incident to the police and then worked with the NYPD on a sting operation—one in which Weinstein was actually admitted to groping her on a secret audio recording. Ultimately, however, the New York District Attorney decided not to pursue the case.

Katherine Kendall
Kendall, who appeared in the Miramax movie Swingers, was among the accusers named in The New York Times’ initial report on Weinstein. In a harrowing account that she gave to ‘The Daily’ podcast, Kendall described Weinstein meeting her in his hotel room and fully disrobing, then physically blocking her from trying to leave the room.

Asia Argento

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PHOTO: Jason LaVeris/Getty Images

Asia Argento

Argento told The New Yorker that in 1997, when she was 21, one of Weinstein’s producers invited her to a hotel on the French Riviera for what she was told was a studio party. Instead, she says, she found Weinstein alone in a hotel room. He asked her for a massage, which she reluctantly agreed to do. According to Argento, Weinstein “pulled her skirt up, forced her legs apart, and performed oral sex on her as she repeatedly told him to stop.”

“[He] terrified me, and he was so big,” she told The New Yorker. “It wouldn’t stop. It was a nightmare.”

Emily Nestor
Nestor, a former Weinstein employee, told The New Yorker that Weinstein made repeated advances on her. “Oh, the girls always say ‘no.’ You know, ‘No, no.’ And then they have a beer or two and then they’re throwing themselves at me,” she recalled.

Rose McGowan

The Powerpuff Girls x Moschino Launch Event

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Rose McGowan

The New York Times reported that McGowan reached a $100,000 settlement with Weinstein in 1997 after an incident that occurred in a hotel room during the Sundance Film Festival. McGowan has previously alluded to being sexually assaulted by a Hollywood “studio head” and on Thursday she named Weinstein as her rapist in a series of tweets directed to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.

Florence Darel
The French actress said that Weinstein made advances toward her numerous times in the 1990s. She apparently pretended to be dating a costar to get him to leave her alone, but when she was asked to meet Weinstein at a Paris hotel in 1995, she says her agent told her that she couldn’t afford not to go. It wasn’t long into their meeting before Darel said Weinstein began propositioning her—even though his then-wife was allegedly sleeping in a hotel room next to his. Darel said that Weinstein claimed she would have to go through him to have a career in the U.S., but she quickly left.

Cara Delevigne

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PHOTO: Victor Chavez/Getty Images

Cara Delevingne

The model and actress shared her own disturbing Weinstein story on Instagram on October 11, describing two separate incidents with the producer. According to Delevingne, Weinstein once called her to ask if she had slept with any of the women she’d been seen with in the media. Later, she apparently met with Weinstein at a hotel for what she believed would be a lobby meeting. Instead, she says she was summoned to Weinstein’s room where he asked her to kiss another woman who was in the room. He allegedly then tried to get Delevingne to kiss him.

“I felt guilty as if I did something wrong,” Delevingne wrote. “I was also terrified that this sort of thing had happened to so many women I know but no one had said anything because of fear.”

Judith Godreche
In 1996, the then 24-year-old actress had a breakfast meeting with Weinstein and a female executive. After the executive left, Godreche says, Weinstein invited her up to his hotel room, where he asked her to give him a massage. “I wish I’d had someone to talk to, to say, ‘How do you deal with this?’” she told The New York Times.

Lea Seydoux

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PHOTO: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images

Léa Seydoux

Seydoux told The Guardian that she and Weinstein both attended the same Paris fashion show several years ago, and the producer had asked to meet the actress at his hotel. The meeting was scheduled for late at night and though the conversation initially focused on her career, Seydoux told The Guardian that it wasn’t long before she was fighting Weinstein off as he tried to kiss her.

Tomi-Ann Roberts
Roberts was a 20-year-old actress when she first met Weinstein in 1984, according to statements she gave The New York Times. Now a psychologist who studies sexual objectification, Roberts says Weinstein greeted her nude in a bathtub and asked if she would be comfortable “getting naked in front of him,” because the script he had in mind for her featured a nude scene. Decades after the encounter, she said she has had trouble watching Miramax movies.

Heather Graham

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PHOTO: Robin Marchant/Getty Images

Heather Graham

Graham told Variety that she met with Weinstein in the early 2000s and he told her that he wanted to cast her in one of his films. According to Graham, Weinstein then informed her that he had an agreement with his wife—one in which he could sleep with other people. “I walked out of the meeting feeling uneasy,” Graham told Variety. “There was no explicit mention that to star in one of those films I had to sleep with him, but the subtext was there.” Weinstein apparently tried to arrange a hotel meeting with the actress several weeks later, but she declined.

Jessica Hynes
The British actress said she lost a film role at 19 because she refused to do a screen test in a bikini for Weinstein.

Romola Garai

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PHOTO: John Phillips/Getty Images

Romola Garai

The Atonement actress recently said that Weinstein had her do an “audition” for him in his hotel room at the Savoy hotel while he wore only a bathrobe. Garai was only 18 at the time. “I felt violated by it, it has stayed very clearly in my memory,” she said.

Zoe Brock

The New Zealand model and writer was 23 when she met Weinstein at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997. After a night out, she and several other festival guests joined Weinstein back at his hotel. As the others left, she found herself alone with Weinstein. Brock told The Guardian that Weinstein “pleaded” with her to give him a massage and she ran into the bathroom to escape his advances.

Claire Forlani

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Claire Forlani

Forlani claims that she “escaped five times” from situations in which Weinstein tried to coerce her into sexual contact. The Meet Joe Black star said that she frequently dealt with suggestions of massages and meals. Forlani decided not to participate in The New Yorker story that laid out dozens of accusations againt Weinstein, and she later told The Hollywood Reporter that she had mixed feelings about it. “Today I sit here feeling some shame, like I’m not a woman supporting other women,” she said. “I just read Mira Sorvino’s article in Time and she writes of how scared she was to speak out and participate. I take little solace in that.”

Sophie Dix
The British actress told The Guardian that, at 22, she was summoned to a meeting at Weinstein’s hotel room. Dix claims he then pushed her onto the bed, and she then hid in the bathroom. When she opened the door, Dix said, he masturbated in front of her. She also told The Guardian that her career suffered after the incident.

Tara Subkoff

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PHOTO: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Tara Subkoff

The actress and fashion designer told Variety that Weinstein grabbed her and made her sit on his lap while he had an erection. She also claimed that she lost out on a movie role after rejecting his advances, and was blacklisted from working in Hollywood as a result.

Lucia Evans
Evans was a soon-to-be college senior and aspiring actress when she met Weinstein in New York in 2004. After repeated calls trying to set up late-night meetings, Evans told The New Yorker that she was eventually brought to a one-on-one daytime meeting with Weinstein in which he forced her to perform oral sex on him, despite her numerous refusals.

Minka Kelly

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PHOTO: Robin Marchant/Getty Images

Minka Kelly

The Friday Night Lights actress said in an Instagram post that Weinstein offered her a lavish and luxurious lifestyle if she would be his girlfriend. Weinstein was married at the time.

Jessica Barth

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PHOTO: Jim Spellman/Getty Images

Jessica Barth

The Ted actress revealed that Weinstein asked her to join him in his hotel room after the 2011 Golden Globes. She said that he told her that she needed to lose weight in order to compete with other top actresses. Barth told her friend and co-star Seth MacFarlane about the harassment, and MacFarlane later made a joke about Weinstein at the Academy Award nominations in 2013. As he announced the Best Actress nominees, MacFarlane said, “Congratulations. You five ladies no longer have to pretend to be attracted to Harvey Weinstein.”



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Nelly Has Reportedly Been Arrested on Charges of Sexual Assault


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Nelly was reportedly arrested on charges of sexual assault early Saturday morning, according to Auburn, Washington police, who confirmed the arrest to The Blast. According to the site, a woman called the police department around 3:48 A.M., saying that she had been raped by the hip-hop star on his tour bus. (Nelly, who is touring with Florida Georgia Line, had performed at the nearby White River amphitheater on Friday night.) Seattle-Tacoma Fox affiliate Q13 reports that Nelly went into Seattle after the concert and brought the woman back with him to the bus, which was parked near a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

According to People, police who arrived found “probable cause” to arrest Nelly on charges of second-degree sexual assault, reportedly taking him into custody just after 4:30 A.M.. He was booked into the SCORE jail in Des Moines, Washington and released about three and a half hours later.

“Nelly is the victim of a completely fabricated allegation,” Nelly’s lawyer told The Blast. “Our initial investigation clearly establishes this allegation is devoid of credibility and is motivated by greed and vindictiveness. I am confident, once this scurrilous accusation is thoroughly investigated, there will be no charges. Nelly is prepared to address and pursue all legal avenues to redress any damage caused by this clearly false allegation.”

According to People, Nelly pled guilty to a misdemeanor possession of pot and possession of drug paraphernalia when police reportedly found both in his vehicle while the singer was on tour in Tennessee in April 2015.

We’ll update you as we learn more about this unfolding investigation.

Related Stories:
10 Attorneys General On Why Betsy DeVos’ Sexual Assault Policies Could be Devastating
Paris Hilton Dismisses the Women Who Accused Donald Trump of Sexual Assault
This Singer Stopped His Show to Call Out a Sexual Assault in the Crowd



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Betsy DeVos Just Officially Killed Obama's Campus Sexual Assault Guidelines


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Education Secretary Betsy DeVos incited an uproar early in September when she announced plans to do away with Obama-era guidelines on how campuses should investigate allegations of rape and sexual assault. Now, she’s officially followed through on her promise.

The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights announced Friday that it’s withdrawing two key pieces of Title IX guidance. One is the 2011 Dear Colleagues Letter, a comprehensive directive how schools receiving federal funding should handle sexual violence on campus—everything from evidence-gathering protocol to how quickly cases should be investigated. The other is a 2014 document called Questions and Answers on Title IX and Sexual Violence, which clarified certain elements of the 2011 DCL.

“The 2011 and 2014 guidance documents may have been well-intentioned, but those documents have led to the deprivation of rights for many students—both accused students denied fair process and victims denied an adequate resolution of their complaints,” Candice Jackson, the Department of Education’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, wrote in a new Dear Colleagues Letter. “The guidance has not succeeded in providing clarity for educational institutions or in leading institutions to guarantee educational opportunities on the equal basis that Title IX requires. Instead, schools face a confusing and counterproductive set of regulatory mandates, and the objective of regulatory compliance has displaced Title IX’s goal of educational equity.”

In withdrawing the guidelines, Jackson said the Department of Education will “develop an approach to student sexual misconduct that responds to the concerns of stakeholders and that aligns with the purpose of Title IX to achieve fair access to educational benefits.”

We don’t yet know exactly what that new approach will look like, but Jackson said the department will solicit public comment in establishing its new policies—and “will not rely on the withdrawn documents in its enforcement of Title IX.”

The news was met with criticism from the left, some arguing that rescinding those Obama-era guidelines would make it even harder for sexual assault victims to come forward.

“Survivors of sexual assault have the right to feel safe and to be heard,” California Sen. Kamala Harris tweeted. “This decision is a disgrace.”

DeVos made it well known that she was considering changes to the Obama administration’s efforts to curb sexual assault on campus. In July, she held meetings with rape survivors and men’s rights activists who advocated for those accused of sexual misconduct; when she was finished, she hinted that changes would come soon.

“We need to do this right, we need to protect all students and we need to do it quickly,” she said at the time.



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Title IX: What to Know About the Campus Sexual Assault Guidelines Betsy DeVos Is Rolling Back


Remember the Obama administration’s efforts to curb rape and sexual assault on college campuses? Thanks to the Trump administration, that progress is now in jeopardy.

Speaking at George Mason University on Thursday about enforcement of the Title IX law, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced her plans to do away with Obama-era guidelines on how schools should investigate sexual assault.

“Instead of working with schools on behalf of students, the prior administration weaponized the Office for Civil Rights to work against schools and against students,” she said.

Here’s what to know about Title IX and the uncertain future of campus sexual assault investigations.

What is Title IX?

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is a federal law banning sex-based discrimination at any school that receives federal funding.

Here’s what it says: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

In other words, the law upholds gender equality on campuses nationwide.

What does it have to do with sexual assault?

Thanks to various Supreme Court rulings and guidance from the Department of Education, Title IX’s ban on sex-based discrimination applies to sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape on campus. A school receiving federal funding can face legal trouble if it knowingly ignores reports of sexual violence in its programs or activities.

The Obama administration was serious about cracking down on campus sexual assault, and in 2011, the Department of Education issued a key piece of Title IX guidance called the Dear Colleague Letter. The DCL wasn’t a law, but a directive on how schools should handle sexual violence issues. Here’s an overview of everything the DCL covered.

With Trump in office, those Obama-era guidelines have been in jeopardy.

It’s sad, but true—and sexual assault survivors and their advocates have been worried.

DeVos has been considering changes to her office’s policies on campus sexual assault, meeting in July with rape survivors and men’s rights activists who argued Obama’s guidelines unfairly favored accusers. At the time, she made it pretty clear that she was planning to take action.

“We need to do this right, we need to protect all students and we need to do it quickly,” she said.

On Thursday, that action finally came down.

In her speech at George Mason University, DeVos announced her plans to end Obama-era guidelines on how schools should handle sexual assault investigations.

“The era of ‘rule by letter’ is over,” she said, adding that the 2011 directive was a “disservice to everyone involved.”

As for putting together a replacement for the current rules, DeVos said the Department of Education will solicit public comment and feedback from universities.



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This Singer Stopped His Show to Call Out a Sexual Assault in the Crowd


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Music festivals are often the highlight of summer plans, but recently, there’s been increased attention on incidents of sexual assault that, sadly, often happen on site. The Bravalla Festival, a popular music festival in Sweden, has already been cancelled for 2018 after 27 sexual assaults were reported at this summer’s event. Meanwhile, other organizers are looking to create spaces just for women on the festival grounds—or “man-free” festivals altogether. Frankly, it’s terrible that things have gotten to that point—after all, the problem is with the assaulters, not the women.

But at a festival in the Netherlands on Friday night, one singer, Sam Carter, made the issue of sexual assault a visible and public one when he called out a “disgusting” sexual assault he’d witnessed in the crowd of his show with some choice words that made it clear that he wanted his show to be a safe space for all.

The Architects were performing at the Lowlands music festival when Carter spotted a man “grab at” the breast of a woman who was crowdsurfing. After the song ended, he paused to address the incident and let the crowd know that there was nothing OK about it.

“I’ve been going over in my f–king mind about whether I should say something or not about what I saw in that last song, and do you know what, I’m gonna f–king say it,” Carter told the crowd. “I saw a girl, a woman, crowdsurfing over here, and I’m not going to f–king point the piece of sh-t out who did it, but I saw you f–king grab at her boob. It is f—king disgusting, and there is no f—king place for that sh-t.”

The crowd seemed to be in agreement; they clapped and whistled their support before the singer continued. “It is not your f—king body,” he said, getting louder. “It is not your f—king body and you do not f—king grab at someone! Not at my f—king show!”

“If you feel like doing that again, walk out there and f–k off and don’t come back,” he said, indirectly addressing the culprit before adding: “Let’s keep this going, let’s keep this a f–king safe place for everybody, and let’s have a f–king good time.”

A video of Carter’s impassioned speech quickly went viral after it was shared on Twitter by the Dutch public radio channel NPO 3FM, and it got a huge response—particularly from those who took to the platform to express gratitude that Carter spoke out. (It’s probably clear from the quotes, but you might not want to crank the audio up over the office speakers.)

Many expressed their gratitude to Carter for speaking out:

It’s beyond awful that in 2017, men still feel like they’re entitled to women’s bodies—but hats off to Carter for stepping up and calling out the assault he saw. Here’s hoping that more organizers and people like him will continue fighting to make music festivals a safer environment for everyone.

Related Stories:
The Sexual Assault Epidemic Is Ruining Music Festivals for Me
Swedish Women Plan ‘Man-Free’ Music Festival to Prevent Sexual Assault



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