Democratic Rep. John Conyers’ (Mich.) hometown newspaper, the Detroit Free Press, called on him to resign on Tuesday night following allegations that he sexually harassed female staffers and reports that he quietly settled one such complaint with a former employee using taxpayer money.
“U.S Rep. John Conyers must resign,” wrote the paper’s editorial board, adding that the longest-serving member of the House “must go” after a “public betrayal.”
BuzzFeed News first reported on Monday that Conyers, 88, paid a former female staffer over $27,000 from his taxpayer allocated discretionary fund in 2015 to settle her complaint, which also required her to sign a confidentiality agreement. The report included multiple published affidavits of former staff members who said they witnessed Conyers touching female staffers in an inappropriate manner. Conyers confirmed the settlement in a statement, saying it was meant “to save all involved from the rigors of protracted litigation,” but denied the sexual harassment allegations.
Then on Tuesday, BuzzFeed reported that one of Conyers’ former schedulers came forward after the original story to say that she experienced similar sexual advances from Conyers that included “rubbing on her shoulders, kissing her forehead, covering and attempting to hold her hand.”
Read more at The Washington Free Beacon.
