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| “ | I'm not going to prison. I'm going to be president. And I will not let a politically motivated ADA and a bitter woman cop who's spent her life getting back at men take me down. | „ |
| ~ Howard arrogantly dismissing the charges against him |
George Justin Howard is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "And the Empire Strikes Back" and a supporting antagonist in the episode "Never Turn Your Back On Them". He is a U.S. Congressman who uses his power and position to sexually abuse and traffic teenage girls. He is loosely based on former U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz, who in 2020 was investigated by the FBI under suspicion of taking a 17-year-old girl across state lines to have sex with her.
He was portrayed by Ben Rappaport.
Overview[]
Howard is the scion of a powerful political family in New York City and a rising star in conservative politics, with ambitions to become president one day. He is also a hebephile who uses his power and charisma to manipulate teenage girls into sleeping with him, and his political connections to cover up his crimes. He is aided in the latter by his lawyer and political fixer Myron Gold, who is connected to every power player in the country.
Howard is also connected to Catalina Machado, a homelessness and women's rights advocate who secretly runs a sex trafficking ring, forcing homeless and at-risk women to have sex with her clients in return for subsidized housing. Howard publicly supports Machado's charities for their public relations value, while secretly having sex with the women she forces into prostitution and their teenage daughters.
Appearances[]
"And the Empire Strikes Back"[]
After the NYPD's Special Victims Unit arrests Machado, Howard's campaign manager Ruben Ortiz, and Machado's flunky Paulie Banducci for sex trafficking, they all offer to help SVU catch Howard in return for reduced prison sentences. Machado tells SVU Captain Olivia Benson that Howard will be speaking at one her fundraisers that evening, and that afterwards he will be attending a yacht party with several underage girls present as "party favors". Benson and Police Chief Tommy McGrath later watch a surveillance feed from a camera secretly placed in Howard's car as he and Ortiz make salacious comments about the various young girls Howard has "taken under his wing".
SVU Detectives Fin Tutuola and Kat Tamin go to the fundraiser undercover, while Benson, Detective Amanda Rollins, and Assistant District Attorney Dominick Carisi Jr. watch from another building as Machado and Ortiz, who are wearing wiretaps and body cameras, tell Howard that Rosa, one of the girls they pimp out to the Congressman, is being "difficult". Howard tells Ortiz to get her to sign a non-disclosure agreement, and then asks if there are any families involved with her charities that have teenage daughters he can "mentor". Machado assures him she can arrange that.
Machado then introduces him to a celebrity influencer calling himself "Q", and Howard invites him to party on the yacht with him and Jenna Evans, a 16-year-old girl he has been sexually abusing for months, and who he lured from New Jersey by promising her an internship with his campaign. On the yacht, Howard gets Jenna drunk and then slips Rohypnol in her drink, rendering her nearly unconscious. When he takes into another room and starts taking her clothes off, Benson orders Tutuola, Tamin, and Rollins to arrest him and "Q" - who turns out to be undercover detective Joe Velasco, whom McGrath sent in without telling Benson.
As Benson and Carisi interrogate him, Howard claims that he thought Jenna was 18. Gold, meanwhile, says Jenna took drugs before the party without Howard's knowledge, and then accuses the NYPD and the Manhattan District Attorney's office of persecuting his client to chase headlines. He claims that he was only in the apartment building where Machado trafficked women to visit his mother and inspect the apartments, part of his duties as a member of a housing subcommittee. When Benson shows him pictures of the women that Machado pimped out to him, he claims to have never met them. Howard then threatens to ruin Benson and Carisi professionally, although Gold manages to quiet him down. Benson later questions Jenna, who believes that Howard has done nothing wrong, even though she admits he sometimes has her give him massages.
Howard pleads not guilty to charges of attempted statutory rape and sex trafficking, and he is released on his own recognizance after Gold promises to have him turn his passport over to the court. McGrath, Benson, and Carisi hold a press conference announcing Howard's arrest.
Howard and Gold meet with Benson and Carisi a few days later to try to make the charges go away in exchange for testifying against Machado, but Carisi says that Howard's only option is to plead guilty and go on the sex offender registry in exchange for a reduced sentence. Howard says that he is days away from forming an exploratory committee to run for president, and that he will not let a "politically motivated ADA" and a "bitter woman cop" destroy his career. Gold tries to shut him up, but Howard keeps haranguing Benson and Carisi, saying that they do not know who they are dealing with. Outside the conference room, however, Gold chastises Howard for speaking out of turn, and slaps him in the face. Howard, clearly intimidated, backs down.
That night, Gold orders the murders of Machado, Ortiz, and Banducci, which puts the case against Howard in jeopardy.
"Never Turn Your Back On Them"[]
Howard holds a press conference in which he claims that the NYPD and the DA's office pressured Machado and Ortiz to make false allegations against him, while Gold strong-arms Jenna into claiming that nothing inappropriate happened between her and Howard.
Jenna's mother, however, provides the detectives with one of her daughter's dresses with Howard's semen on it, and tells them that he got her pregnant when she was 15 and pressured her to have an abortion, even though he publicly claims to be pro-life. When Benson confronts Howard with the evidence against him, he panics and says that the baby could not have been his because he always "pulls out". He then attempts to blame everything on Gold, who tells him to shut up and says to Benson and Carisi that anything Howard says will be coerced testimony because it will have been said without the presence of his attorney; he then turns around and leaves. Realizing that Gold has abandoned him, Howard has no choice but to confess his crimes to Benson and Carisi in the hopes of getting a plea bargain.
It is later revealed that Howard is imprisoned for statutory rape and sex trafficking.
External links[]
- Justin Howard on the Law & Order Wiki
