Just hours after being grilled by reporters for saying she would not conduct further investigation in to the allegations surrounding Iowa Finance Authority Director Dave Jamison, Reynolds switched course and announced that her office would, in fact, carry out an investigation.
Democratic leaders in the State Legislature called for an investigation yesterday following the release of the victim’s complaint against Jamison that detailed how senior members of Reynolds’ administration knew about the abuse and did not act. The survivor’s lawyer also said yesterday that the survivor “questioned why Reynolds didn’t order the state to investigate the extent of Jamison’s behavior, who was aware of it and why it wasn’t reported earlier.”
This is the third time just this week that Reynolds has reversed strategy on the sexual harassment allegations surrounding Jamison.
On Monday, after the Associated Press was told that the Governor’s office had no written documentation of the complaints against Jamison, Reynolds told reporters that they did in fact have a letter from one of the survivors detailing the allegations, but that she would not release it. Then, yesterday, Reynolds’ office changed course again and released the letter, which revealed that sexual harassment was rampant within her administration and had been allowed to continue for years.
“Once again Governor Reynolds has shown that she cannot be trusted to handle the rampant sexual harassment happening in her own administration,” said Iowa Democratic Party Chair Troy Price. “It’s been over a month since she received this complaint, and it was only after building pressure from Democratic legislators that Reynolds finally ordered an investigation into the abuse and harassment that had been permitted to continue for years under her watch. We hope a legitimate and independent investigation will answer who in the Reynolds administration knew about this abuse and why it was allowed to persist for so long.”