Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has decided to step down as ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee as the ethics committee begins an investigation into sexual harassment allegations against him. He said:
After careful consideration and In light of the attention drawn by recent allegations made against me, I have notified the Democratic Leader of my request to step aside as Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee during the investigation of these matters.
Last week, BuzzFeed had a report that Conyers settled a wrongful dismissal claim with a former employee who accused him of firing her when she refused to cave into his sexual advances.
Other employees described inappropriate behavior and even alleged they flew in his mistresses on taxpayer money.
Conyers said in his statement that he denies the allegations, “many of which were raised by documents reportedly paid for by a partisan alt-right blogger.”
DOG WHISTLE! ALT-RIGHT BLOGGER! Actually, that’s not true. Mike Cernovich had the documents, but gave them to BuzzFeed. The publication didn’t pay for them and as far as I know, Cernovich didn’t either. But BuzzFeed independently verified the documents and spoke with the women involved.
Of course Conyers tries to distract everyone by detailing his involvement in civil rights and how he will not allow that to be forgotten due to these claims.
Sorry, Conyers. But your involvement in the civil rights movement doesn’t give you a pass to treat females and employees like crap. Nor does it allow you to waste tax money on your mistresses or settle sexual harassment claims.
Some Democrats welcomed the decision. From The New York Times:
Representative Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who holds the recently created position of vice ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, praised Mr. Conyers for making a “wise decision.”Mr. Raskin is a co-sponsor of legislation put forth by Representative Jackie Speier, Democrat of California, to overhaul the way sexual harassment is handled on Capitol Hill, and to put an end to the practice of paying secret settlements out of the federal Treasury.“The House is ready to clean house with respect to sexual harassment, and everybody agrees that we need to have a zero-tolerance policy,” Mr. Raskin said in an interview, adding, “We should never normalize sexual harassment in the workplace.”
ZERO TOLERANCE? Zero tolerance obviously means a slap on the wrist. Zero tolerance would mean resignation. Zero tolerance would mean having Conyers step down and shunned from Congress. Zero tolerance would mean unsealing all the deals made in private to payoff the victims.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY