Jennifer-Ruth Green takes aim at political opposition after Politico publishes records of her sexual assault
Jennifer-Ruth Green, the Republican candidate for Indiana's 1st Congressional District, says her opponent helped publish "illegally obtained" military records that revealed she was sexually assaulted.
Jennifer-Ruth Green, the Republican candidate in the race to represent Indiana's 1st Congressional District, is livid after Politico published details about her sexual assault while in the military, without her permission, and blames her opponent for "illegally" obtaining the information. But now she's ready to speak out.
In a profile of Green's career and candidacy in the Indiana congressional race, Politico reporter Adam Wren used the documents, which the outlet claimed "were obtained by a public records request and provided to Politico by a person outside the Mrvan campaign" to report last week that "an Iraqi serviceman sexually assaulted her by grabbing her breast and exposing himself" when "she and a small group of officers visited the national training center."
Speaking exclusively to Fox News Digital about the piece from Politico, Green said her political opponent, Rep. Frank Mrvan, and Politico were behaving like her assailant by ignoring her pleas to not disclose that she was sexually assaulted while serving in the military.
"The reality of it is – like I said at one point in my life to my assailant, 'No. Please stop. Don't.' – and he did what he wanted to do … This is the exact same situation all over again, all because there was a man who wanted some sort of gratification," Green said. "Congressman Frank Mrvan gets his gratification of trying to think he's smearing my name. Adam Wren gets his gratification of thinking he's going to get a good smear story out of it. And all it does is essentially reopen wounds for victims."
Jennifer-Ruth Green, the Republican candidate to represent Indiana's 1st Congressional District. (Jennifer-Ruth Green campaign)
Green insisted that Wren failed to garner the full story of the incident and took her "experience and diminished it to a place where he can just say a clinical report of exactly what happened."
"I'm surprised because Adam Wren spent time in this article focusing on every single detail down to the skirt I was wearing, down to the color of the skirt I was wearing, down to every single knob I touched, all of those things, but yet he writes clinically about one of the worst days of my life," Green added. "He has no idea the concept of being forced to be in a four by four, round circular area, 30 feet in the ground in a tower where you only have windows and a 30-foot drop on the other side, 30-foot drop to escape somebody who was blocking your path [with] somebody who has a clear intent with a weapon in hand, who is focused on trying to take advantage of you, and you're able to escape that with minimal physical harm. And he wants to reduce that to 50 characters."
Following the assault, Green said she was told to keep quiet about the incident by her superiors in the Air Force, as detailed in the Politico report.
Rep. Frank Mrvan speaks from his office in the Longworth House Office Building on July 26, 2021. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Green wrote a letter on Oct. 3 to the relevant U.S. attorney, the Air Force Inspector General and the Department of Defense to request a criminal investigation into how the documents were provided to Politico.
"I write to request an investigation into the unauthorized, unlawful release of my Air Force personnel file," Green wrote in the letter, which was obtained by Fox News Digital. "The fact that my file has been leaked in the course of my campaign for United States Congress leads me to believe that it was politically motivated."
In the letter, Green made it clear that she "did not consent, in writing or otherwise, to the disclosure of my personnel file to Politico or anyone else" and pointed to the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, 5 U.S.C § 552a, as proof that her file should not have been released.
"Coming as when it does – in the closing weeks of my campaign for Congress – makes me believe that this is a politically motivated attempt to impact the upcoming election," Green concluded in the letter.
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Green claimed Politico ignored her pleas not to run the information detailing her sexual assault, which the outlet claims to have received from an individual outside the Mrvan campaign.
"They did what they wanted, got what they wanted," Green said, adding that the outlet proceeded with the publication of the information "despite having clear interaction and engagement and telling them that the records were illegally obtained."
Green graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 2005. (Jennifer-Ruth Green campaign)
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Brad Dayspring, VP of Marketing and Communications for Politico stated that the records related to Green's sexual assault are "publicly available documents." He also noted that Green's team helped the outlet craft the original story by providing them with additional documentation of certain events from her career.
"This story is an incredibly nuanced, deeply reported piece that looks at the totality of Ms. Green’s military career, which her team has placed at the forefront of her campaign," Dayspring said of Politico's original story. "The military records in question are publicly available documents that can be obtained by a standard FOIA request."
"Further, her campaign team provided additional documentation of the incidents described in the story, which included new information that helped shape what was published," he added.
"I believe Congressman Frank Mrvan illegally obtained those documents and was floating them around to press," Green said. "That's what our political team told us, that they were farming it out to several different press outlets to see who could write a very disgusting, ugly smear piece against me with the intent to paint me as a disgraced military officer."
"Congressman Mrvan and his cronies were definitely responsible for this, and he's going to try to deny it in every way possible," Green said, questioning the timing of the documents being made public.
Green said she refuses to allow Mrvan to "get the play that he wants" because she won't be "silenced" as she stands up for herself and other sexual assault survivors.
"I'm going to stand up not only for me, but I'm going to stand up for every other survivor, every other vet, every other woman, because I'm not going to let Congressman Frank Mrvan do this, I'm not going to let Adam Wren do this, and I'm just done with it," she said.
"I don't care what happens on Nov. 8. If you need me, I am here, and I will help you," Green added. "There are methods to make sure that you're taken care of."
Details related to a sexual assault Green faced while she was in the military were published by Politico in a profile piece of her candidacy in the Indiana election. (Jennifer-Ruth Green campaign)
Green noted her previous appreciation of Mrvan when he worked to pass a bill related to military sexual trauma, but it appears that fondness has since faded.
"I applauded him for it and said, I respect this, and I never had to say anything about my personal background," Green said. "But knowing that he stood up for that in a public session, but then privately would stand here and try to besmirch me and use this to force me to talk about something outside of what I wanted to discuss, all for his political gain, it is a clear lack of integrity."
"I have started every conversation publicly and every conversation privately by saying these words: 'Congressman Mrvan is a good man. He loves his country and he loves his family, but we are ideologically opposed, and that's why I'm running,'" she added.
Jennifer-Ruth Green while stationed in Baghdad, Iraq. (Jennifer-Ruth Green campaign)
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Green said she doesn't believe the incident would have been documented by the outlet if she were not a Republican in the race.
"If I were on the other side of the ticket, they would weep for me, they would mourn for me," Green said. "Only because I'm a Republican do they feel this is acceptable. But it's unacceptable for every vet, it's unacceptable for every woman, it's unacceptable for everybody who has ever been a victim of sexual assault in their entire life."
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