It seems like a lot of people are passing judgment on Johnson without knowing all of the facts. If it is true that the alleged victim asked Johnson to stay quiet about the assault, then I see nothing wrong with what he did. If he influenced her to keep quiet, I certainly would be on the opposite side of the fence, but if she independently chose to not press charges and did not want the incident gaining public attention, that's her choice, and I think Johnson should have honored that.
Until proven, an allegation is simply an allegation, and for some reason, when it comes to sexual assaults, Americans tend to throw due process out the window and vilify the accused before he has had his day in court.
Certainly if I were Johnson, I would have encouraged her to go to the police, and he may have done that; the article doesn't discuss that.
But in not going to the police upon the alleged request of the victim, I don't think Johnson did anything wrong. On the contrary, if I were the victim and someone had taken this public against my wishes, I'd be pretty pissed.
Good know at least some people care enough to look at the details in a story such as this.
This. The reports all seem to indicate it was the victim's choice for her and her attorney to deal directly with Kramer's office rather than go to the police (until she recently heard of other similar assaults). Under those circumstances, Johnson arguably didn't do anything wrong in respecting her wishes rather than paternalistically calling the police over her objections.
The same could be said of Johnson's office not reporting the assault to Republican leaders in the WI House when Kramer ran for the #2 slot there. Doing so would've similarly violated the confidentiality his aide requested of his office.
