Secret Service dragged into Donald Trump’s Ronny Jackson scandal

| 9:24 pm EDT April 24, 2018
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When word surfaced yesterday that Donald Trump’s VA nominee Dr. Ronny Jackson was being accused of getting drunk on the job and fraudulently prescribing drugs, it was difficult to parse. It was unclear who was making these accusations, or what the evidence might be. It was only clear that the Senate committee vetting Jackson’s nomination was taking the accusations seriously. Now a whole new set of allegations have surfaced against Jackson, and this time it appears easier to quantify.

Jackson is accused of having harassed a woman while he was on an overseas trip. CNN is reporting on-air that Secret Service agents allegedly had to stop Jackson from banging on the woman’s door. This changes things dramatically. Suddenly there’s a woman who can testify that Jackson did this, and there are agents who can testify as witnesses. Jackson still deserves due process, but this is a much more tangible situation than yesterday’s set of accusations, which came with far too little detail.

So now what? When Donald Trump was asked about the Ronny Jackson nomination by reporters earlier today, before this latest news broke, he already sounded like he was trying to convince Jackson to withdraw. We’ll see what happens now that Jackson’s alleged pattern of inappropriate behavior includes a specific victim and Secret Service witnesses. This also raises a whole host of other questions.

Yesterday we asked if Donald Trump knew about the accusations back when he asked Dr. Ronny Jackson to give him a physical, and if Trump might have somehow used it to coerce Jackson into cartoonishly lying about everything from his overall health to his height and weight. Now that it appears the Secret Service was aware of Jackson’s personal troubles, it certainly makes it more plausible that Trump knew. While the Senate committee is probing the accusations against Jackson, it must also investigate what Trump knew and when he knew it.