Section 1 Sense of Congress that the President should revoke the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded to Bill Cosby
Findings— Congress finds the following:
Established in 1963 and bestowed by the President of the United States, the Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor of our Nation.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is awarded to recipients for “especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors”.
William Henry “Bill” Cosby, Jr. (in this subsection referred to as “Cosby”), received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002.
In recent months, more than 50 women have come forward and conveyed disturbing accounts of sexual assault and drugging by Cosby.
The statute of limitations has expired for many of these incidents, and as a result, the majority of these women will never get their day in court.
According to the New York Daily News, court documents obtained by the Associated Press on Monday, July 7, 2015, revealed that “Cosby admitted under oath that he bought Quaaludes to dope the women he wanted to grope—and slipped the sedative to at least one lady and “other people””.
During a deposition on September 29, 2005, a lawyer, Dolores Troiani, asked Cosby, “When you got the Quaaludes, was it in your mind that you were going to use these Quaaludes for young women that you wanted to have sex with?” and Cosby answered “Yes.”.
On December 30, 2015, prosecutors from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, charged Cosby with three counts of felony aggravated indecent assault for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting a young woman in 2004.
The prosecutors noted in an affidavit of probable cause that “Cosby obtained seven separate prescriptions for Quaaludes that he did not personally ingest, nor ever intended to personally ingest” and that “the victim’s substantially impaired condition prevented her ability to consent, or even defend herself from Cosby’s sexual assault”.
Cosby has admitted to drugging women with the intention to satisfy his sexual desires, and, therefore, the Federal Government should not recognize Cosby with an honor like the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Sense of Congress— It is the sense of Congress that the President should revoke the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded to William Henry “Bill” Cosby, Jr.