Tax Dollars spent to settle SEXUAL HARASSMENT CLAIMS Protecting PREDATORS?
Think about it.....your tax dollars went to settle claims against ....WHO?
We should protect the victims of these creeps....why should we protect PREDATORS?
Shouldn't Rep. Blake Farenthold [R-TX] RESIGN?
Rep. Alcee Hastings [D-Fla] gets no FREE pass!
What else don't we know?
 20 December 17
At this stage, we have little or nothing coming in at all. Traditionally, December has been our best fundraising month of the year. Instead we find ourselves in survival mode.
If you are coming here, we need you to help.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
Sure, I'll make a donation!
If you would prefer to send a check:
Reader Supported News PO Box 2043 Citrus Hts, CA 95611 |
Senator Tim Kaine, D-VA, listens to testimony during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on
Capitol Hill, December 6, 2017. (photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Congressional Complaint Office Refuses to Release Data on Sexual Harassment Settlements
20 December 17
he office that receives complaints from Congressional staffers on sexual harassment has refused to release information on settlements in the Senate, keeping secret the amount of taxpayer money spent to quiet such claims.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., asked the Office of Compliance on Dec. 6 to release the number of sexual harassment claims filed against a senator or his or her staff between 2007 and 2017. He also asked for the dollar amounts of the settlements and said he would make the information public.
In a response Monday provided to NBC News by Kaine's office, the OOC said it was unable to release the information, citing a number of reasons that included confidentiality requirements.
Susan Grundmann, executive director of the OOC, said in a letter that the Congressional Accountability Act, the statute that created the Office of Compliance, prohibits her from releasing the data.
"Earlier this month the OOC provided the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration with a statistical breakdown of settlement amounts involving Senate employing offices from 1997-2017. That information represents the full extent of what we can provide with regard to settlements under the CAA involving the Senate," Grundmann wrote. "Any additional disclosure would involve an invasive search of strictly confidential records, which would be contrary to existing law."
Grundmann also wrote that the data would be incomplete and, therefore, unreliable because she said specifics aren’t documented on why a case advances through the settlement process.
She also said her office doesn’t have records of all the accounts where settlements are paid beyond the U.S. Treasury. “If some other accounts used to make a payment, we would not necessarily know about the settlement,” Grundmann wrote. She directed Kaine to the Secretary of the Senate, which she says has “more detailed and accurate” information.
Kaine, who told Grundmann in his original request that he’d make the information public, wasn’t satisfied with Grundmann’s response. In a statement, Kaine said that by not releasing the names of the accused or the accusers, no privacy rights would be violated.
Kaine said that as a senator he's "entitled to this information."
"I did say in the letter there might be some information where those who were survivors of sexual assault had asked for confidentiality and of course you can't break that down and give it to me. But you can redact names and give me the data," Kaine said during an interview with MSNBC's KasieDC on Sunday. "The public needs to know how much of a problem this is in United States Senate, because then the public can judge whether our reforms are sufficient or whether there are insufficient, and so this information will come out."
The OOC’s response seems to be inconsistent. The office released five years of data in settlements with House offices to the House Administration Committee and is expected to release the first 15 years as well.
The only public information surrounding Senate settlements is a $220,000 payment in 2014 between the bicameral Helsinki Commission and an employee. Even rough the accused was a congressman, Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., the case was finally resolved with the Senate Chief Counsel for Employment office.
The House data revealed that one $84,000 settlement was reached since 2013. While the OOC didn’t release the name of the accused, NBC News confirmed that the settlement was invloving Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas. Farenthold announced last week he would not seek re-election.
NOTE: The article below is from the Weekly Standard and although its slant is apparent, we need to have an honest conversation about the issue beyond partisanship:
Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., Under Investigation for Sexual Harassment
JUN 21, 2011 | By MARK HEMINGWAY
Blake Farenthold, Texas Congressman Accused of Sexual Harassment, Will Not Run Again
SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
DEC. 14, 2017
WASHINGTON — Representative Blake Farenthold, a Texas Republican who settled a lurid sexual harassment claim with his former communications director for $84,000 and faced accusations from other aides that he ran a hostile workplace, announced Thursday that he will not run for re-election, saying the allegations have become “a political distraction.”
He is the fourth lawmaker in two weeks to announce his eventual departure from Congress amid the swirl of sexual allegations and the sixth this year.
In a five-minute-long video posted on his campaign’s Facebook page, Mr. Farenthold denied the sexual harassment allegations from his former communications director, Lauren Greene. But he admitted, with unusual candor, that he had run an “unprofessional” workplace and that his own temper sometimes got out of hand, describing himself as “profoundly sorry” for his conduct.
“I’d never served in public office before. I had no idea how to run a congressional office, and as a result I allowed a workplace culture to take root in my office that was too permissive and decidedly unprofessional,” Mr. Farenthold said.
“It accommodated destructive gossip, offhand comments, off-color jokes,” he went on, adding, “and I allowed the personal stress of the job to manifest itself in angry outbursts and too often a failure to treat people with the respect that they deserved. That was wrong.”
Mr. Farenthold is currently the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation, and in addition to Ms. Greene, two of his former press secretaries have come forward in recent days to describe a workplace culture that was more like a college fraternity house than a congressional office.
Both said Mr. Farenthold had an explosive temper, berated them repeatedly, made sexually explicit jokes and engaged in casual sexual banter that set a tone followed by his underlings.
Speaker Paul D. Ryan told reporters that he had spoken twice with Mr. Farenthold on Wednesday, and praised the congressman for agreeing to step aside.
“I think he’s making the right decision to retire,” Mr. Ryan said. “There are new stories that are very disconcerting.”
But Mr. Farenthold’s decision to finish out his term, rather than resign immediately, drew a sharp rebuke from Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, who called the aides’ accusations “shocking” and “unacceptable.” Ms. Pelosi also reiterated her call for Representative Ruben Kihuen, Democrat of Nevada, to resign after The Nevada Independent reported that a second woman accused him of unwanted sexual advances.
Mr. Farenthold’s announcement is only the latest. Last week, Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan, left amid claims he sexually harassed his aides. Representative Trent Franks, Republican of Arizona, was pushed out by Mr. Ryan after an aide complained that he had offered to pay $5 million to carry his child as a surrogate. And Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, will quit over accusations of forcibly kissing one woman and of groping others during photo opportunities.
Before them, Representative Tim Murphy, Republican of Pennsylvania, resigned after his mistress said he had pressured her to have an abortion, and Representative Joe Barton, Republican of Texas, announced his retirement after lewd photos of him appeared on the internet.
Mr. Farenthold, alone among them, appeared to be a survivor. He insisted he had done nothing wrong, and promised to repay the $84,000 to the Treasury. Mr. Ryan had pointedly not called for his resignation, noting that the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics had investigated the allegations against him, and declined to forward them to the Ethics Committee.
But as accusations against him piled up, it appeared untenable for him to continue.
“Congress must work harder to hold ourselves to a higher standard,” said Representative Steve Stivers of Ohio, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. “There is still more work to be done.”
In her claim against him, the former communications director, Ms. Greene, complained that Mr. Farenthold had told another of his aides that he was having ‘‘sexual fantasies” about her. She also complained that the congressman routinely drank to excess — so much so that aides who accompanied him to Capitol Hill functions would joke that they had to be on “redhead patrol” to keep him out of trouble.
The former press secretaries to Mr. Farenthold — Elizabeth Peace and Michael Rekola — came forward this week with their own accounts. In an interview with The New York Times, Ms. Peace said women would discuss which male lobbyists had texted them pictures of their genitals, and both men and women would talk about strip clubs and whether certain Fox News anchors had breast implants.
In a lengthy interview with CNN.com published on Wednesday night, Mr. Rekola said Mr. Farenthold was so abusive that he wound up seeking medical treatment for a stomach ailment, as well as psychological counseling.
Mr. Farenthold, first elected in 2010, has long had a whiff of notoriety about him. During his first campaign, he was photographed wearing duck-print pajamas and standing next to a scantily clad woman. In 2014, the same year that Ms. Greene sued him, he announced that he was giving up an internet domain name — one that described a sexually explicit act — that he had held since 1999, when he was in the business of buying such names on speculation.
In the video released Thursday, Mr. Farenthold, who turned 56 this week, said that he and his family discussed his political future over the Thanksgiving break, and that all agreed he should “run for another term because there is still work to be done.” He said he expected a tough primary challenge but was looking forward to the campaign.
“I welcomed it, so I could address some of the concerns and discuss ways I hope we could make America better for everyone,” he said, adding, “I did not create the broken system we’re working in, and I want to change it.”
But the “renewed focus” on his personal conduct made him reconsider, he said.
“I understand fully that this has become a political distraction and that I would be forced to engage in a monthlong campaign for personal vindication,” Mr. Farenthold added, concluding, “That’s not why I came to Congress. Quite simply my constituents deserve better.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/14/us/politics/blake-farenthold-texas-harassment.html
FROM WIKIPEDIA:
Comments
Post a Comment