Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) on Monday named former members of Congress who used taxpayer money to quietly settle misconduct complaints, the result of a subpoena that produced nearly 1,000 pages of records.
While the payments may not have been public, the majority of the names — Reps. Rodney Alexander (R-La.), Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), Eric Massa (D-N.Y.), John Conyers (D-Mich.), Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) and Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) — MAce listed don’t come as a surprise due to Ethics investigations and scandals emerging in the media.
“You, the American people, paid for this. Taxpayer dollars were used to silence victims of sexual harassment by Members of Congress. We said we would get you names. Here they are, along with the amounts,” she posted on X.
In 2007, Alexander had a $15,000 settlement paid on his behalf following a harassment complaint involving a member of his staff. Two years later, McCarthy had two complaints filed against her office, resulting in an $8,000 settlement.
In 2010, Massa — who resigned while facing an Ethics investigation after multiple male staffers alleged he had groped them — had three separate settlements totaling $115,00. Massa admitted to getting in "tickle fights" and acknowledged inappropriately touching a staffer after the news broke.
Conyers appears on the list twice, with a $50,000 settlement in 2010 and another $27,111.75 in 2014, both connected to allegations of unwanted advances toward staff. He resigned in December 2017 after the story became public.
In 2014, Farenthold utilized the fund to pay $84,000 to his former communications director, who sued him for sexual harassment. The payment was not publicly known until 2017, after which Farenthold resigned.
And in 2017, former Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.), settled a complaint from a female staffer who alleged his behavior turned hostile after she did not return his interest for $39,250. Meehan disputed the characterization but acknowledged he had told the significantly younger staffer he considered her a “soul mate” and admitted he did not take it well when he found out she was seeing someone else. He had been a member of the House Ethics Committee, which is responsible for investigating complaints of this nature. He resigned in 2018.
Mace’s release of the settlements comes as Congress has faced growing pressure over sexual misconduct, with former Reps. Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzales recently resigning amid separate allegation
