Taxpayers have paid more than $300,000 in secret sexual harassment settlements on behalf of six former House members or their offices, according to documents reviewed by Republican Rep. Nancy Mace and CNN.
The Congressional Office of Workplace Rights was forced to turn over the settlement documents to Congress after receiving a subpoena from Mace. Mace helped lead the push for transparency and accountability on Capitol Hill after sexual misconduct allegations led to the two high-profile resignations.
CNN’s review of more than 1,000 pages of case files, including attorney records, settlement documents and formal complaints, provides a window into allegations that some members took advantage of their positions to abuse employees.
The Congressional Office of Workplace Rights is involved in a range of complaints against members, not just sexual harassment allegations.
In a letter to House Oversight Chairman James Cuomo obtained by CNN, the general counsel said that from Jan. 1, 1996, to Dec. 12, 2018, the office approved 349 rulings or settlements “to resolve complaints against legislative branches.” Eighty of those cases were resolved by House or Senate offices for a variety of reasons. Of those, seven cases resulted in payments stemming from sexual harassment allegations. The payments referenced in the letter use taxpayer funds held in a Treasury account that lawmakers have no longer selected.
Twenty-three settlement case files within the jurisdiction of the Congressional Office of Workplace Rights have been destroyed in accordance with the office’s records retention policy.
“This ‘OCWR Records Retention Policy’ was developed in 2013 to align OCWR with regular record retention practices across the government,” wrote General Counsel John N. Ohlweiler.
The general language of the settlement contract reviewed by CNN did not have the accused office admit any wrongdoing, but instead stated that the office agreed to settle “to avoid the inconvenience of protracted litigation and the expense of such litigation to the parties and taxpayers,” as one settlement statement states. The settlement agreement also provides for how the office handles issues related to the terms or conditions of the plaintiff’s termination of employment.
Members can no longer rely on taxpayer dollars for settlements following policy changes spurred by the #MeToo movement in 2018. The House Ethics Committee announced in a recent statement that since the new law was enacted, “the committee has not received any rulings or settlement notices related to sexual harassment allegations against members.”
Mace named six former congressmen or congressmen’s offices involved in settlements totaling more than $300,000 in an X post on Monday. Most of the lawmakers named by the congresswoman resigned after publicly facing sexual misconduct allegations, including former Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and Republican Blake Fahrenhold, R-Texas.
In several of those cases, public reports preceded his resignation that the member used taxpayer funds to settle the case.
CNN attempted to contact the former members named by Mace or representatives of all six members. Three former council members named by the congresswoman, including Conyers and Farent Holder, have died.
In 2017, the House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into Conyers, who at the time denied any wrongdoing but did not dispute the existence of the settlement or payment. Conyers has been paid more than $27,000 in severance and another $50,000 in settlements, documents show.
That same year, 2018, Frenthold resigned while also facing an ethics investigation. He has denied some of the accusations against him but apologized for using inappropriate language and his role in creating a hostile workplace and vowed to repay taxpayer funds spent on the settlement. An $84,000 settlement was paid on behalf of Farenthold, documents show.
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