The House Ethics Committee recommended censure for Rep. Chuck Edwards, 65, this week, and his lawyers somehow managed to call it a win.
The story started in the spring after reports that Edwards had given two female staffers in their twenties a pair of personalized handguns, one engraved for each.
A lawyer for one of the women later said she took the gun only because she was worried about her job and got rid of it soon after. That reporting — first broken by reporter Kate Santaliz — led to the Ethics Committee investigation that produced Monday’s report.
The bipartisan committee found substantial reason to believe Edwards violated House rules on sexual harassment and creating a hostile workplace. Edwards’ team looked at the same report and reached the opposite conclusion.
A spokesperson said the report “confirms what Congressman Edwards has maintained throughout this process: he did not engage in sexual harassment or create a hostile work environment.”
The statement noted the committee found no quid pro quo, no sexual misconduct and no evidence either staffer faced any adverse job action.
“While we disagree with the Committee’s recommendation regarding conduct standards, we are pleased that the most serious allegations have been rejected,” it said. Edwards looks forward to addressing the matter on the House floor and continuing to focus on Western North Carolina, it said.
The report lists a long series of gifts Edwards gave the two staffers, including jewelry worth more than a thousand dollars, handbags, the handguns, shoes, electronics, small appliances, trips and one-on-one dinners.
One of them was a custom jigsaw puzzle of Adam Sandler that came with a note inviting a staffer to see him perform live. He also hired a singer to perform a staffer’s favorite songs at her birthday, left flowers in a hotel room in Las Vegas after she had already checked out and once had thirty flavors of ice cream delivered to a staffer’s house. When she told him it was too much, he answered, “You looked like you needed a lot of cheering up!”
At one going-away party, Edwards read a poem he had written for a departing staffer while a slideshow of the two of them played, growing emotional as the rest of the office reportedly sat there uncomfortable.
The committee also noted he skipped floor votes to help a staffer with holiday decorating and that some relevant messages appeared to have been deleted from his phone.
Edwards has denied any wrongdoing from the start. His lawyers stress that the committee never proved sexual misconduct or a quid pro quo. When the full House returns from recess next month, it is expected to take up a censure resolution. A censure would be a formal rebuke but would leave his committee seats intact.
