GOP lawmakers move to shut down investigation into alleged rape by fellow Republican

Republican state lawmakers in Washington are calling on Democrats to end a bipartisan investigation into a rape allegedly committed by outgoing Republican state Sen. Joe Fain.

Earlier this year, Candace Faber said that she had allegedly been raped by Fain in 2007. Her charges were revealed in a series of tweets in September.

“If it’s bad that Blasey Ford waited to raise this until Kavanaugh got to the highest levels of government, then maybe the rest of us shouldn’t sit on our secrets just crossing our fingers that they won’t come into more power,” Faber wrote at the time. “So okay, let’s do it. @senatorfain, you raped me the night I graduated from Georgetown in 2007 … I’m done being silent.”

After Fain lost his bid for re-election in November, state Sen. Ann Rivers (R) discounted the allegations because they were made on Twitter.

"It was awful enough to see a charge of rape hurled at one of the most respected members of the state Senate," Rivers wrote in an op-ed last week. "It was worse to see the news media report the charge uncritically, without reporting many details that would give any reasonable person pause."

"Law enforcement authorities have never evaluated her charge and assessed her credibility," Rivers said of the alleged victim. "Nor has Faber risked the possibility of criminal prosecution for filing a false report."

"Instead, she made her charge on a social-media site where anything goes," the lawmaker added. "And once the Seattle Times rushed the story into print Sept. 28, it legitimized the story for every outlet that followed. Even the Washington Post and New York Times found it fit to print."

On Monday, Washington state Senate Republican Caucus Chairman Randi Becker also moved to end the bipartisan investigation, calling it a "partisan witch hunt" that serves "no legitimate legislative purpose."

Read Becker's statement below.