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Familial Abuse & Violence

1224: John Sweeney

Cajsa LilliehookLeave a comment
John Sweeney

John Sweeney is a former Congressman from New York. He served for 8 years, losing to Kirsten Gillibrand in 2006. He is on this list for domestic violence allegations by his wife, but he is disreputable for several reasons. When he was in Congress, CREW named his one of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress. He was active in the Bush effort to block a recount in 2020. He was on Trump’s transition team and was part of the Trump team working to overturn the 2020 election, claiming Democrats were manufacturing votes and preventing Republicans from observing, and other blatant lies. He said it was generational for Democrats to commit election fraud, so I guess he is one of those people who think Black votes are all illegitimate. They always claim the fraud is happening where Black people live.

In 2005, Sweeney’s wife Gayle called 911 alleging he physically abused her. The police came and wrote up a report. This became a bigger scandal because the state police wrote up a second incident report sanitized of any abuse allegation. The domestic violence allegation came out in 2006 and contributed to his election loss. Incidentally, when reporters found evidence that the police altered their records to protect Sweeney, the state police did not investigate how that happened. The investigated who leaked it.

Although his wife denied the abuse at the time, she later said that statement was coerced and he was abusive. Their marriage did not recover as, according to her, he blamed her for his loss. His former wife, Betty, said he was never violent with her, but the police were also called out in 1998 for a domestic violence incident involving her.

When they divorced in 2007, Sweeney said his wife abused him. By then he had been arrested multiple times for driving under the influence and lost his license. He has since recognized he is an alcoholic and is now sober.

Sweeney's wife claims he abused her - Says she - Times Union, The (Albany, NY) - July 22, 2007 - page A1 July 22, 2007 | Times Union, The (Albany, NY) | KATE GURNETT Staff Writer | Page A1 Gayle Sweeney, about to confront former U.S. Rep. John Sweeney in a divorce case, claims her husband was often verbally abusive and at times physically abused her during their marriage. She now concedes that a statement she made on the eve of last fall's election denying marital abuse was "coerced." Mrs. Sweeney, who is staying with friends at locations she wants to keep secret, approached the Times Union on Friday and asked to have her story told. She said she was fearful for her life. "I am never alone, I'm always with other people. I think with all the connections involved - John Sweeney has connections, money and power - I want protection," Gayle Sweeney said. Mrs. Sweeney, 36, said she wanted to publicly counter what she expects to be her husband's divorce claim of mental cruelty. The former four-term congressman filed forms July 11 with the Saratoga County clerk to initiate the divorce. Contacted Saturday, John Sweeney flatly denied any physical abuse of his wife. "Out of respect for the legal proceedings, and the judge's preference, I will not comment on any of the issues involved with my marriage," Sweeney said in a written statement he delivered in person to the newspaper. "I do however feel compelled to explicitly state that I never at any time engaged in abuse and violence." Sweeney's first wife, Betty Sweeney, of Schaghticoke, stood up for her former husband in a telephone interview Saturday. "I've known (John) all these years and I never observed any kind of behavior like that towards me or anybody else," said Betty Sweeney, who had three children with him. Over the last month, Gayle Sweeney said, both she and her husband sensed a breakup coming after a rollercoaster relationship marked by alcohol-induced spats. Sweeney recently sought an order of protection against his wife, and ordered her to leave their home. Sweeney said he is not commenting, on the advice of his matrimonial attorney, Karen Gazda. A hearing in the divorce case is set for Monday in Fulton County. Mrs. Sweeney is contesting the action. Her attorney is Michael Freedman. Sweeney, 51, lost his seat in Congress last November to Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand. Gayle and John Sweeney first met in 1996 at Broadway Joe's, a bar on South Pearl Street. Mrs. Sweeney was tending bar when Sweeney came in with Mayor Jerry Jennings, she recalled. She and Sweeney were in other relationships and didn't begin dating until 2001, when they went to Tavern at Sterup Square in Raymertown. "I was just in awe of him," said Gayle Sweeney. "And we just fell in love." Within months, they moved in together and they married three years later. "He was very charismatic." (Sweeney dropped her birth name, Gaia, in the sixth grade for the more traditional Gayle.) Mrs. Sweeney had no prior experience in politics or life in Washington, D.C., but quickly learned the ropes. Her husband hired her as a fundraising consultant, paying her a 10 percent commission on the money she brought in. Critics questioned whether Rep. Sweeney was simply laundering campaign funds for personal use. The last straw in the marriage came June 30, Mrs. Sweeney said. She gave this account: After dinner and two bottles of white wine at a restaurant in Lake George, the couple argued about a remark she'd made to someone during dinner that John was not going to run again for Congress. Angered, John drove home to Clifton Park, leaving her at The Georgian resort with no transportation home. Karen Gazda, John Sweeney's lawyer, said she had photographs of bruises and bite marks her client suffered from Gayle Sweeney following their argument at Lake George earlier this month. "Judges do not issue orders of protection lightly," she said. Last November, just days before the hotly contested election that John Sweeney ultimately lost, the Sweeneys appeared before a throng of journalists to rebut reports in the Times Union and the New York Daily News that Gayle Sweeney had called police to an incident of domestic violence at their Clifton Park home. At the time, the Times Union had obtained a State Police dispatch report confirming long-standing rumors of a domestic incident. The report indicated that Mrs. Sweeney had phoned State Police in December 2005 to report her husband was "knocking her around." In the subsequent news conference outside the home of GOP strategist Tom Slater, John and Gayle Sweeney called the report "a fake." Mrs. Sweeney defended her husband then. "I did not need to be protected from John...there were no injuries to me," she declared at the time. Sweeney blamed Gillibrand, saying she'd leaked bad information and "in her desire for power, she has tried to ruin my marriage, slander my family." In fact, Mrs. Sweeney said Friday, she had been injured in the altercation, to the point where her lips were swollen when Sweeney pushed her into a file cabinet. Political advisers wanted her to deny that there had been a violent incident that night, in a last-ditch attempt to save her husband's campaign, she said. Instead, she said, "the evening in question was a very difficult time for our family. Real life has real problems." After November, Mrs. Sweeney said, her husband "did blame me for losing the election on several occasions." Earlier this month, before Sweeney filed for divorce, Mrs. Sweeney claims, he took her off their joint bank account and the account of Sweeney & Associates, a consulting business. Now, with just $400 in the bank, Gayle Sweeney says, she is training to sell real estate. Kate Gurnett can be reached at 454-5490 or by e-mail at kgurnett@timesunion.com. Copyright, 2007, (c) Times Union. All Rights Reserved.

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