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The University of Texas concluded its investigation of Senator Charles Schwertner, finding that the "available evidence" did not prove that the Republican of the Austin area had sent explicit text messages to a student in violation of the law. school policy and the federal law on gender equality.
In a report released Tuesday, senior investigator Johnny Sutton, a former US lawyer, said it was "plausible" that a third party sent the messages after accessing the accounts of Schwertner. Schwertner had told the investigators that he shared the login information with another person who might be responsible for the messages.
The legislator, however, refused to identify the third party to the investigators – a fact noted by Sutton in his report.
"[Schwertner] has access to information that could allow a more definitive conclusion of this case, but he does not want to share this information and the University does not have the authority necessary for it. 39 require a more in-depth investigation, "Sutton concluded. Austin American-Statesman .
Reports of possible sexual harassment by Schwertner surfaced for the first time in September, when US statesman announced that UT had opened an investigation under Title IX as a result of a complaint filed by a graduate student. According to the student, Schwertner would have sent her sexually explicit texts and a picture of her genitals with the help of LinkedIn and Hushed, an application that allows users to send messages from the Internet. a substitute phone number.
UT investigators confirmed that the messages were related to Schwertner's accounts, but a forensic analysis revealed that they had not been sent from his phone. The picture was even more confusing when a lawyer claiming to represent an unidentified third party said his client had sent the messages, not Schwertner.
In the end, the investigators admitted that they could neither definitively prove the allegations against Schwertner, nor release him from any wrongdoing. ] "We acknowledge that it is plausible that the Respondent [Schwertner] sent SMS and photo from a device other than his personal cellphone and that the third person claiming responsibility is false or does not exist, but we there is no evidence to support these possibilities, "says the report's summary.
Schwertner, a former UT student reelected to his Senate seat in November, had initially agreed to be interviewed by investigators, according to his lawyers. But they advised against cooperating with the investigation, fearing that he would not receive the same level of confidentiality as the accuser.
In a statement released Tuesday, Schwertner said that he considered himself released by the UT report.
"I do The University of Texas closed its investigation because I did not send the offensive texts in question," he said, according to the Texas Tribune . "This unfortunate affair is now closed."
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