House OKs Res to Publish Sexual Abusers and Harassers Along With Payouts — $18M Since 1997

The U.S. House passed a resolution from GOP Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky yesterday that requires the chamber’s Ethics Committee to release the names of members for whom taxpayers coughed up settlements for sex-harassment claims.

The measure passed 420-0. GOP Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina voted present and called the measure political theater because, she said, the records were released in May.

Thus, how much more information the committee will release is unclear. The committee and the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights have two months to produce the names.

The resolution passed a little more than two months after two congressmen, far-left Democrat Eric Swalwell of California and Republican Tony Gonzales of Texas, quit after their sex scandals went public.

Mace: Resolution Won’t Do Much

Resolution 1399 says that “transparency is essential for accountability in government” and that sexual abuse and harassment adversely affect the “integrity of the proceedings of the House of Representatives.”

It requires that the Ethics Committee and Workplace Rights office provide a “single consolidated” list of every member involved in “any case” of sexual abuse and/or harassment. It also requires a list of all settlements for which taxpayers were on the hook, along with a total of such paid claims.

The records must be disclosed within 60 days.

“Transparency is essential to the operation of government, and Americans have a right to know if their taxpayer dollars settled congressional sexual misconduct claims,” Massie wrote on X.

The one member who voted present, Mace, said the resolution won’t, as a practical matter, do much.

In March, the House Oversight Committee, at Mace’s request, subpoenaed the Workplace Rights office for names of members for whom settlements were paid, along with the dollar amounts.

The records, Mace reported, showed that the Treasury paid $18 million to settle more than 300 claims filed between 1997 and 2018. “This is your money used to cover up their misconduct,” Mace said:

The American people deserve to know exactly who used their dollars to keep their secrets hidden.

On May 4, Mace posted a photo of the 1,000 pages released pursuant to the subpoena. She also reported some unwelcome news.

“All records prior to 2004 were destroyed — which tells you everything you need to know about how long this has been buried,” she wrote on X:

We are reviewing every page. We will name all nine. We will release the full 1,000 pages — once we confirm that personally identifiable information of victims and witnesses has been properly redacted.

Accountability is not a threat. It is a promise.

Naming Names

ABC News named names based on what the Workplace Rights office released. It also reported that the office destroyed records pursuant to records retention policy before a change in 2018 required permanent retention.

“Among those named by Mace are former Rep. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa., and former Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., and former Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and former Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., who both passed away shortly after leaving Congress,” the network reported:

Mace listed a settlement of $8,000 in 2009 for the office of McCarthy, who is alleged to have been aware of and conducted mistreatment related to a consensual sexual relationship between an aide and a senior staffer. She also faced allegations of discrimination based on sex and disability, and reprisal.

For Conyers, a $50,000 payment was made in 2010. He’s alleged to have made advances on a staffer. Four years later, Conyers faced a hostile workplace, sexual harassment, age discrimination, and reprisal allegations, resulting in improper termination, resulting in a $27,111.75 payout.

Meehan repaid a $39,250 settlement. Alexander, who left Congress in 2013, told ABC News “that the $15,000 settlement tied to his name was the result of ‘the behavior of two staffers’ in his office,” the network reported. Those staffers were fired.

“An attorney for Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y., who faced allegations of hostile workplace, sexual harassment and inappropriate touching, told ABC News in 2017 that the former congressman had no knowledge of the payments,” ABC continued:

There were three Massa cases listed and three settlements totaling to $115,000.

Former Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, told ABC News in 2018 that he had no intention of repaying the $84,000 sexual harassment settlement stemming from a 2014 complaint by a former congressional aide alleging sexual harassment, gender discrimination and retaliation. He resigned in 2018 and died last year.

Still, Mace wrote on X after Massie’s resolution passed, it doesn’t mean all that much, noting the subpoena and release of documents.

“Now Congress wants to vote on doing what we already did,” she wrote on X. “We fought for the people’s right to know months ago, this is nothing more than political theater.”

Swalwell, Gonzales

As The New American reported in April, Swalwell, a bitter, moralizing leftist, bailed from Congress and his gubernatorial campaign after multiple accusations of rape.

In 2019, Swalwell was back in his district in San Francisco and alone in a car with a former staffer who was driving, CNN divulged. He told her to pull into a parking lot, then asked her to perform oral sex. She complied, but then quit, saying it made her feel uncomfortable.

“You’re right, it’s probably not good for a congressman to be caught with his pants down,” he told her, the network continued:

In September 2019, she was alone with Swalwell at a bar in his district after a casual gathering with staffers, she said. “I was really, really drunk,” she said.

She said she remembers getting an Uber, and then the next thing she remembered, she woke up in Swalwell’s hotel room the following morning, naked in bed with him.

“I know that there was sexual contact because when I woke up in the morning, I could feel that there was,” she said. Swalwell told her that “last night was great” but she should get going, she said.

In 2024, the same staffer wound up in his hotel and again was intoxicated. Swalwell raped her. “I was pushing him off of me, saying no,” she told CNN. “He didn’t stop.”

Other women told CNN that Swalwell sent them pictures of his penis.

Gonzales quit his primary race because of an affair in 2024 with staff member Regina Santos-Aviles. She committed suicide by setting herself ablaze. Gonzales admitted the adultery in March on a conservative radio program.

The San Antonio Express-News divulged that Gonzales, who represents Texas-23, begged a staffer to send him nude photos in June 2020.

“Gonzales texted that she was a ‘smart girl’ in response to frustrations she had expressed about dating,” the newspaper revealed:

He used a diamond emoji to convey that she was special and shouldn’t “settle.”

Then, he asked when she normally went to sleep. Next, he asked what she would wear to bed.

Soon, it was “What kind of panties do you wear?”

The father of six then asked for nude photos and told the woman he wanted to have sex with her, then continued pressing her for the photos.