Mel Reynolds, Black Ex-Congressman, Back In The News Over Zimbabwean Porn Charges
02/20/2014
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One of my earliest pieces for VDARE.com mentioned Congressman Mel Reynolds, a disgraced Democrat Congressman with a statutory rape conviction, who I didn't know was black, because it's not the kind of thing you mention, if you're an MSM journalist.

I wrote:

I just found out, five years after I first heard of him being sent away for having sex with an underage girl, that Congressman Mel Reynolds is black. No one mentioned it, so I didn't know until I came across a story where he mentioned it himself. "In classic Clintonian style, Reynolds smeared his young accuser as a "liar" and "nut case." A diverse jury of six blacks and six whites believed the troubled girl, not the conniving Rhodes Scholar. Yet, Reynolds bitterly blamed racism in a 40-minute courtroom tirade:  "When they shackle me, like they shackled my slave ancestors and take me off to jail, nobody in this room will see me crawl."

The quote is from Mel And Bill: Bosom Buddies,by Michelle Malkin, February 1,  2001. The race of the accused—or in this case convicted—only comes up in the media when he cries racism. Mel Reynolds was, like Bill Clinton,  a Rhodes Scholar, and was being pardoned by Clinton for sexual offences involving a 16-year old campaign volunteer.

This year Reynolds was in  Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, to negotiate a business deal. If people really did turn over in their graves, the tachometer on Cecil Rhodes' tomb would have gone up another thousand revs.

The Gawker Media site Jezebel reports that Reynolds is in the news again over pornography.

Ex-Congressman Convicted of Rape Now Facing Porn Charges in Zimbabwe

A disgraced former congressman convicted of rape charges more than a decade ago in the U.S. is now facing serious charges in Zimbabwe.

According to Reuters, Mel Reynolds, a former Illinois congressman was arrested at a hotel in Zimbabwe on Monday. He was due in court on Wednesday to face charges of possessing pornography and not having a valid visa.

...

He had reportedly come to Zimbabwe to work with foreign investors in the tourism industry.

Jezebel doesn't say he's a black Congressman either (they have him filed under "Terrible Men") but with web journalism, you have to publish a photo, so here he is.

Mel Reynolds, Black Ex-Congressman, Back In The News

I should say that Reynolds is not charged with possessing child pornography—earlier charges of that were about photos of his 16-year old girlfriend—but with pornography. This is illegal in Zimbabwe. With over 15 percent of their population living with AIDS, Zimbabwe feels the need for some fairly repressive laws—which gets them a lot of criticism from gays in the United States.[Former congressman denies pornography charge in Zimbabwe, By MacDonald Dzirutwe, Reuters, February 19, 2014]

A transcript of a telephone conversation introduced at his 1994 trial is online:

Exhibit A was a tape of a lurid phone conversation Reynolds had with his underage girlfriend, which surely must have impressed a president who had regular phone sex chats with his own girlfriend Monica Lewinsky.

In one of the gamier exchanges, the former congressman proclaims his good luck at the prospect of having a threesome with his young ladyfriend and a Catholic schoolgirl.

"Did I win the Lotto?" the delighted legislator asks. [Clinton Saved Sex Perv Who Sought Tryst with Catholic School Girl, Newsmax, Jan. 30, 2001]

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