Pressure on Johnson Smith to name online harasser after AJ Nicholson email released
/ Our Today
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Amid allegations that Leader of Government Business in the Senate Kamina Johnson Smith was years ago harassed by a People’s National Party (PNP) parliamentarian, the foreign affairs and foreign trade minister is under pressure to produce the evidence.
The calls came even before Opposition Senator Lambert Brown, released an email thread, under the subject ‘Lying Lips’, of a conversation between former PNP Senator AJ Nicholson and Jamaica Labour Party Senator Marlene Malahoo Forte.
In the email thread, Nicholson reportedly said: “Your colleague, Johnson-Smith, has said on radio that, in the Senate today, I asked you if you wanted to be flexi raped. I did not, could not, and would not say any such thing to you. You know that.”
He added: “In all my life, no one has ever stated such a bare-faced lie on me publicly. But let your colleague be assured that the evil that people do…the big pay back is coming. Mark my word! And that was an evil thing to do.”
The email had been sent in October 2014 when Nicholson, as leader of government business in the Senate, came under fire for the ‘flexi rape’ comment he had said was just a joke during banter on flexitime legislation.
In the email thread, Malahoo Forte acknowledged that she recognised that the comment was meant in jest and not intended to offend her, but warned Nicholson that he did himself harm by making light of a matter as serious as rape.
However, it was Nicholson’s emailed comment on the “big pay back” coming that was likely to have caused the police to visit him, as Brown stated occurred after the email.
Brown claimed that law enforcement determined there was no cause to pursue the matter against Nicholson, who was at the time foreign affairs minister.
Johnson Smith has not confirmed whether this was the case she was speaking about when she first made the allegation that a PNP parliamentarian had harassed her, but unnamed law enforcement sources have reportedly confirmed that the content of an email did indeed lead police to conclude that Johnson Smith had reason to be concerned about a matter.
Now, it is up to Johnson Smith to reveal whether Nicholson was in fact the parliamentarian whose harassment led to her comments in the Senate last week.
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