This Pervert Was At A Pajamas Party With Whores So What Did You Expect.
Four-term Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold (R., Texas) resigned from Congress Friday afternoon after staffers accused him of sexual harassment and creating a negative work environment in his office.
He had already announced that he would not seek re-election in his Texas district.
In a statement, Farenthold said that he had planned to serve the rest of his term, but said he knew “in [his] heart that it’s time for [him] to move along and look for new ways to serve.”
He Looks Like A Perv. Look At How He Is Cutting His Eyes.
Politico reported that he had been considering a resignation in the face of a potential Ethics Committee investigation into his behavior.
Farenthold had settled a former aide’s sexual harassment lawsuit against him in 2014 using $84,000 in taxpayer dollars.
The former congressman denied any wrongdoing, but admitted that he “allowed a workplace culture in my office that was too permissive and decidedly unprofessional,” and that he failed to “treat people with the respect that they deserved.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee released a statement expressing hope he would pay back the $84,000.
“I thank Blake Farenthold for his service in Congress,” said NRCC Chairman Steve Stivers. “I hope Blake is true to his word and pays back the $84,000 of taxpayer money he used as a settlement. As I have said repeatedly, Congress must hold ourselves to a higher standard and regain the trust of the American people.”
“I’m confident we’ll have a Republican in this seat come November.”
Washington — Another woman who worked for longtime U.S. Rep. John Conyers is accusing him of touching her inappropriately “by stroking and rubbing my thighs” and appearing naked before her.
Elisa Grubbs, who said she worked for Conyers from 2001-13, claims she also witnessed him touching and stroking the legs and buttocks of Marion Brown, Grubbs’ cousin, and other female employees of the congressman on “multiple occasions.”
“When Rep. Conyers would inappropriately touched me like this, my eyes would pop out and I would be stunned in disbelief,” Grubbs wrote in an affidavit posted on Twitter by Brown’s attorney, Lisa Bloom.
Rep. Conyers: ‘I am retiring today’
Conyers, the longest-serving member of the U.S. House, has repeatedly denied claims he mistreated staffers.
Calls for his resignation reached the highest levels of House leadership last week, as Brown and another accuser went public detailing his alleged misconduct.
Supporters held a rally in Detroit on Monday to call for Conyers to receive “due process” and for critics to stop pressuring him to step down.
Bloom said Grubbs’ affidavit is the first of several she will release describing allegations that Conyers sexually harassed employees and “covered up complaints.”
“My client Marion Brown asks only for an acknowledgment and apology,” Bloom said on Twitter.
Grubbs described a time that Conyers slid his hand up her skirt while she was sitting next to him in the front row of a church.
She said she was startled and jumped to her feet, exclaiming, “He just ran his hand up my thigh!” — an incident she said was witnessed by other staffers.
On another occasion, she was at Conyers’ home when he emerged from the bathroom naked, she said. Grubbs ran out of the house.
Grubbs said Conyers referred to her and Brown as “Big Girl Cousins” and would often say, “Those are some big girls.”
“Witnessing Rep. Conyers rub women’s thighs and buttocks and make comments about women’s physical attributes was a regular part of life while working in the office of Rep. Conyers,” Grubbs wrote.
Conyers’ lawyer, Arnold Reed, dismissed the new allegations late Monday.
“With regard to the latest #affidavit just released, this is nothing more than tomfoolery coming from the mouth of Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer and unworthy of further comment,” Reed tweeted.
Bloom had represented Weinstein, the Hollywood producer, against several claims of sexual harassment.
Brown broke a confidentiality agreement to go on NBC’s “Today Show” on Thursday, describing what led her to file a 2014 complaint against her boss, alleging she was fired for refusing his sexual advances.
Conyers settled Brown’s complaint for $27,000 using his taxpayer-funded office budget. Brown has offered to testify before the House Ethics Committee, which is investigating Conyers.
The Detroit News first reported last week that former staffer Deanna Maher said Conyers sexually harassed her, including inappropriately touching her, in three incidents spanning 1997 to 1999. And another former staffer filed a lawsuit in federal court this year alleging sexual harassment by Conyers but later withdrew the complaint to protect the congressman’s reputation.
Grubbs indicated in her affidavit that she’s also willing to testify under oath.
Grubbs attended a fundraiser with Conyers and Brown in 2005 at a Chicago hotel, where she overheard Conyers ask Brown to come to his hotel room because he needed her help with something, she said.
Grubbs said she later picked up her cousin, Brown, at the hotel and that she was “physically shaken and upset,” with red eyes.
“Ms. Brown then proceeded to tell me and my mother that, ‘That SOB just wanted me to have sex with him!” Grubb recalled.
Brown had said on NBC last week that Conyers had invited her to a hotel room in Chicago under the guise of discussing business but was in his underwear when she arrived.
“He asked me to satisfy him sexually,” Brown said. “He pointed to areas of, genital areas of his body, and asked me to, you know, touch it.”
Grubbs said Conyers regularly undressed in front of female employees and, at times, would call staffers in only to emerge from his private bathroom in his underwear.
Grubbs said she complained to Conyers’ chief of staff and to the staff director of the House Judiciary Committee on which Conyers serves.
“Despite my complaints, no action was taken and Rep. Conyers’ inappropriate conduct continued,” Grubbs wrote.
Another Democrat has been revealed to have used the controversial Congressional “slush fund” in 2006 to cover up sexual harassment allegations — Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York.
What were the accusations?
Meeks was not himself accused of sexual harassment, but a former staffer said that she was harassed by him and his office after she reported sexual harassment by an employee of a donor to the congressman, according to the Daily Caller.
Andrea Payne, then a congressional aide, sued after she was fired for filing a complaint at the Office of Compliance, the agency at the center of the sex predator slush fund controversy.
“This is an action to recover for damages sustained by plaintiff when Rep. Meeks violated her constitutional rights by retaliating against her, and ultimately terminating her employment, because of her sexual assault lawsuit,” said Payne’s attorneys in her subsequent lawsuit.
Payne had filed a lawsuit against a physical therapy clinic where she says an employee had sexually harassed her. The owner of the business was a donor of Meeks and angrily confronted him about the lawsuit, according to the Daily Caller.
Who else benefited from the harassment slush fund?
Democrats Rep. John Conyers (Mich.) and former Rep. Eric Massa (N.Y.) used the same agency to secretly settle accusations of sexual harassment, while Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold (Tex.) also benefited from the office’s services, all at taxpayers’ expense.
Here’s Rep. Meeks discussing John Conyers’ sexual harassment allegations
Meeks discussed the allegations of sexual harassment against Conyers in a segment on MSNBC that has taken on new meaning with the current revelations.
“The two highest forms of claims of discrimination are race and sex/gender, which is reflective of a systemic problem in America we have to address,” Meeks said at the time.
Former ESPN Vice President Roxanne Jones claimed in a Friday op-ed published on CNN that “women enable” sexual predators.
Jones criticized women for being complicit in covering up for sexual predators in a piece written for CNN. Jones brings attention to the many female NBC employees who reportedly covered up Matt Lauer’s alleged sexual predatory behavior before he was fired by NBC on Wednesday.
“Behind every sexual harasser, be he Matt Lauer or the man next door, likely stands a woman willing to excuse, cover up or feel ‘heartbroken’ for the abuser once his lewd behavior is exposed,” wrote Jones.
Jones criticized Lauer’s former co-host Savannah Guthrie of “Today,” who looked visibly devastated when announcing his firing on-air. Guthrie emphasized, while sitting next to Hoda Kotb, that she was “heartbroken” and referred to him as a dear friend.
“Why would Guthrie and Kotb immediately rush in to praise Lauer before they even had details of the story?” inquired Jones, especially after a Variety report broke that Lauer had a secret button under his desk to allegedly sexually harass women in his office.
Guthrie previously joked about a “huge bag of sex toys” found in Lauer’s desk while on the Meredith Vieira Show in 2o16. Vieira previously worked with Lauer from 2006-2011.
Megyn Kelly, host of “Megyn Kelly Today” on NBC also referred to Lauer as a “friend” on air following being news being broke of his firing. She also welcomed his accusers and Lauer on her show.Lauer was fired Tuesday after a female staffer filed a complaint to Human Resources that he sexually harassed her while covering the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games.
Sexual harassment standard different for Congress, SC’s Clyburn suggests
U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn could find himself in hot water.
A flippant response the Columbia Democrat made to reporters while walking in the Capitol is drawing the ire of many.
When asked about sexual harassment allegations against colleague Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Clyburn seemed to suggest elected officials should be held to a different standard than other public figures.
In a video posted on Twitter, the 77-year-old Clyburn is walking to an elevator with Congressional Black Caucus chairman Cedric Richmond (D-La.), when asked “Other men in other industries have faced similar accusations … and gotten out of the way, resign, stepped down, far faster than he has, right … Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer?”
That was followed by another question, “So it’s different because he’s elected,” but the elevator doors closed before Clyburn might have responded.
Many comments critical of Clyburn have been posted on social media. Among them, people are questioning his logic, asking him to resign – in delicate and powerful terms – and calling him a poor representative of South Carolina.
A writer for The New York Times Magazine and National Geographic tweeted that Clyburn invoked the name of Susan Smith, South Carolina’s infamous child murderer, in his defense of Conyers.
“James Clyburn compared Conyers’ accusers to the child murderer Susan Smith, who initially claimed a black man had abducted her kids. Clyburn said, these are all white women who’ve made these charges against Conyers,” Robert Draper tweeted.
When asked if that comment was true, Draper said he verified it through two sources, adding “Clyburn has used the Susan Smith parallel more than once, to members & staffers.”
This isn’t the first time Clyburn has opened himself up to criticism on the issue of Conyers.
On Nov. 21, the assistant Democratic leader, the third-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House told The New York Times he was unsure whether the claims against Conyers “have any real substance.”
“You can’t jump to conclusions with these type of things,” Clyburn told The New York Times. “For all I know, all of this could be made up.”
The following day, Nov. 22, Clyburn had a somewhat different on Twitter.
Clyburn tweeted that any claims of sexual harassment are very serious and can’t be tolerated.
“The allegations against Congressman John Conyers are very disturbing, and I am aware he has emphatically denied them,” Clyburn wrote. “The House Ethics Committee should conduct a prompt, deliberate and thorough investigation.”
Should Clyburn’s followers on social media expect another response, differing from his curt comment at the elevator, on Thursday?
Clyburn might not be in the minority among his peers on this issue.
The Democratic caucus held a meeting Wednesday morning, and according to a post on Twitter, Rep. Linda Sanchez complained that elected members of Congress shouldn’t “be held to a higher standard” than others when it comes to sexual harassment.
Conyers, the longest serving member of the U.S. House, is currently being investigated by the U.S. House Ethics Committee after BuzzFeed News first reported the 88-year-oldrepresentative settled a wrongful termination complaint in 2015 by a staffer who accused him of sexual harassment.
Conyers has denied the allegations and resisted calls for his resignation, but stepped down from his role as the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.
On Monday, Clyburn asserted he isn’t planning on retiring after 25 years on the job. He said he will seek re-election next year as the incumbent in the South Carolina’s 6th District congressional seat.
“My health is good. I feel fine,” Clyburn said, adding, “I don’t think I’ve detected any angst with the voting public about my service.”
