Sen. Ron Wyden questioned Rodney Scott, President Donald Trump's nominee for commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, over an alleged "rape threat" he made to a government employee.
During a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Wednesday, Wyden noted that a Scott had "tweeted what a judge referred to as a classic rape threat to a former Border Patrol agent who was critical of your leadership."
"And you tweeted at her on this matter, quote, lean back, close your eyes, and just enjoy the show," the senator explained. "To a former officer who took issue with you and CBP leadership for the culture you'd fostered, a culture that included the alleged cover-up of the brutal killing of Mr. [Hernández] Rojas, this strikes me as exceptionally troubling."
"She had said that she had been raped while she was at the Academy," Wyden added. "You chose to respond with a rape threat."
Scott insisted he had privately apologized to the victim.
"That was not my intent," he said of the rape threat. "I was challenging [her] after about four years of being insulted left and right. I had a weak moment. I apologize for that. But I was not making any type of a threat. I was challenging her creative imagination that I had asked her for."
"Pardon me, you were challenging her creative imagination about rape?" Wyden interrupted.
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"That is not what I said," Scott replied. "I was challenging her creative imagination about multiple threats, multiple allegations against me, and the agency that she would never provide any information or data to support, or any evidence. But regardless, I apologized to her."
Wyden also asked Scott about being a member of a Facebook group "that contained racist and sexually explicit content."
"Your membership in this group where vile, racist, and sexually explicit posts were shared, again, is just, I think, unacceptable from a leader," the lawmaker observed. "Indifference and wisecracks to the death of a 16-year-old who died in Border Patrol custody, sexually explicit content involving a member of Congress, a photo that appeared to show a deceased father and a child face down in a river, with comments suggesting that it had been faked."
Scott argued that the "actions of a few tarnished the reputation of many, to include myself."
