Longest-serving DEMOCRAT lawmaker's sexual harassment claim exposed

[Русский агент]

HE SETTLED, LIKE MOST DO

Michigan Rep. John Conyers, a DEMOCRAT and the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives, settled a wrongful dismissal complaint with a woman who alleged she was fired because she would not “succumb to sexual advances.”

Documents from the complaint include four signed affidavits, three of which are notarized, from former staff members who allege that Conyers, the ranking DEMOCRAT on the powerful House Judiciary Committee, repeatedly made sexual advances to female staff that included requests for sexual favors, contacting and transporting other women with whom they believed Conyers was having affairs, caressing their hands sexually, and rubbing their legs and backs in public. Four people involved with the case verified the documents are authentic.

The documents also reveal the secret mechanism by which Congress has kept an unknown number of sexual harassment allegations secret: A grinding, closely held process that left the alleged victim feeling that she had no option other than to stay quiet and accept a settlement offered to her.

“I was basically blackballed. There was nowhere I could go,” she said in a phone interview. The woman's name is being withheld at her request, because she said she fears retribution.

Last week the Washington Post reported that the office paid out $17 million for 264 settlements with federal employees for various violations, including sexual harassment.

In this case, one of Conyers’ former employees was offered a settlement, in exchange for her silence, that would be paid out of Conyers’ taxpayer-funded office budget.

His office would “rehire” the woman as a “temporary employee” despite her being directed not to come into the office or do any actual work, according to the document.

The Conyers documents, however, give a glimpse into the inner workings of the Office of Compliance, which has for decades concealed episodes of sexual abuse by powerful political figures.

Calls for an overhaul have grown louder in the post-Weinstein era.



https://www.buzzfeed.com/paulmcleod/she-complained-that-a-powerful-congressman-harassed-her?utm_term=.byeMDRo21o#.gtDpePMj1M

[USFREEDOM911]

HE SETTLED, LIKE MOST DO

Michigan Rep. John Conyers, a DEMOCRAT and the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives, settled a wrongful dismissal complaint with a woman who alleged she was fired because she would not “succumb to sexual advances.”

Documents from the complaint include four signed affidavits, three of which are notarized, from former staff members who allege that Conyers, the ranking DEMOCRAT on the powerful House Judiciary Committee, repeatedly made sexual advances to female staff that included requests for sexual favors, contacting and transporting other women with whom they believed Conyers was having affairs, caressing their hands sexually, and rubbing their legs and backs in public. Four people involved with the case verified the documents are authentic.

The documents also reveal the secret mechanism by which Congress has kept an unknown number of sexual harassment allegations secret: A grinding, closely held process that left the alleged victim feeling that she had no option other than to stay quiet and accept a settlement offered to her.

“I was basically blackballed. There was nowhere I could go,” she said in a phone interview. The woman's name is being withheld at her request, because she said she fears retribution.

Last week the Washington Post reported that the office paid out $17 million for 264 settlements with federal employees for various violations, including sexual harassment.

In this case, one of Conyers’ former employees was offered a settlement, in exchange for her silence, that would be paid out of Conyers’ taxpayer-funded office budget.

His office would “rehire” the woman as a “temporary employee” despite her being directed not to come into the office or do any actual work, according to the document.

The Conyers documents, however, give a glimpse into the inner workings of the Office of Compliance, which has for decades concealed episodes of sexual abuse by powerful political figures.

Calls for an overhaul have grown louder in the post-Weinstein era.



https://www.buzzfeed.com/paulmcleod/she-complained-that-a-powerful-congressman-harassed-her?utm_term=.byeMDRo21o#.gtDpePMj1M

Time to drain the swamp.

The Freedom of Information act should be used to expose the accused.

[Русский агент]

Time to drain the swamp.

The Freedom of Information act should be used to expose the accused.

I agree. Taxpayers are funding these settlements.

While a settlement typically does not incriminate anyone, it is too easy for accusers to extort payments from powerful people.

I'd like to see tort reform that prohibits such payments unless complainants can meet basic evidentiary standards.

The House is working on it, but DEMOCRATS predictably oppose it.



The Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act would require federal judges to sanction attorneys whose claims are later found frivolous. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), who introduced the Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act, said the effort is intended to rebalance a justice system that has tilted too far in favor of plaintiff’s attorneys and their clients.

“There are so many frivolous lawsuits, ruining people’s reputations, robbing people of their livelihoods. We have to do something to reduce these junk lawsuits,” Smith said. “Often they are filed with the intention of getting a settlement. It’s a form of legal extortion.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/house-gop-quietly-advances-key-elements-of-tort-reform/2017/03/09/d52213b2-0414-11e7-b1e9-a05d3c21f7cf_story.html?utm_term=.ee67bb3479cd

[tinfoil]

Here's an oldie but a goodie: Conyers rebuttal to conservatives that insisted the healthcare bill (ACA) vote needed to be postponed until there was enough time to read. Nancy Pelosi was known for saying "We have to pass it to find out what's in it", but Conyers offers another excuse for the immediate vote.

[tinfoil]

[Ralph]

The Muh Russia Defense.

Good for the Russians as Conyers sexual harassment mimicked (in the form of a question, what do all democrats have in common....) a sexual predator. Damn Russians, Once they have gotten control of the world's uranium market, they are behind every Bush...err....Trump...err...Reagan.

[Русский агент]

Good for the Russians as Conyers sexual harassment mimicked (in the form of a question, what do all democrats have in common....) a sexual predator.

In Conyers' defense, the allegations were never proven.

[Ralph]

In Conyers' defense, the allegations were never proven.

I simply follow the money...especially when its tax payer money. Evil is as evil does.

[Русский агент]

I simply follow the money...especially when its tax payer money. Evil is as evil does.

I hear you, but consider that around 97% of civil litigation in the US is currently settled out of court.

That generally means that the accused never has the right to question the accuser or discover what evidence - if any - they may have against them.

It's easier, quicker, and less expensive to settle. Plaintiffs and their attorneys know that.

Unless tort reform addresses the lax evidentiary standards in American civil litigation and criminalizes making false allegations, that won't change.

[Ralph]

I hear you, but consider that around 97% of civil litigation in the US is currently settled out of court.

That generally means that the accused never has the right to question the accuser or discover what evidence - if any - they may have against them.

It's easier, quicker, and less expensive to settle. Plaintiffs and their attorneys know that.

Unless tort reform addresses the lax evidentiary standards in American civil litigation and criminalizes making false allegations, that won't change.

So you are going to ask a body of Government that is made up from a representative group consisting of almost 50% lawyers....and 50% millionaires to reform the method by which they obtained their wealth? LUCK. But that still does not address the PAYOUTS made from taxpayer monies. It would be much easier for the distinguished gentlemen to keep their junk in their paints than to ask these same distinguished gentlemen to stop using the methods that continues to allow them to hold on to their positions of power and leverage that promotes such behavior in the first place.

In this case it can't be dismissed as a simple accusation due to the fact that a settlement was accepted from tax payer money. The guilt or innocence is not the problem...the problem is the documented fact that such charges are launched so many times that a "SLUSH FUND" must be made up from OP money....other people's money (mine and yours) and that exists in the first place.

Why would it be expensive to defend one's self in a body made up of 50% lawyers in a city were the very laws are written?

[PostmodernProphet]

this is the guy who threw his wife under the bus for taking bribes (she did time in jail).......he's not going to quit for claims of sexual harassment.......

[Русский агент]

this is the guy who threw his wife under the bus for taking bribes (she did time in jail).......he's not going to quit for claims of sexual harassment.......

Nor should he.

Only DEMOCRAT hypocrites and RINOs would cast aside the presumption of innocence for political gain.