South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace says she has obtained data by means of a congressional subpoena that reveal the worth of a number of confidential sexual misconduct and harassment settlements struck on behalf of members of Congress and paid on the expense of the U.S. taxpayer totaling greater than $338,000 over a 10-year run — whereas a letter to the Home Oversight Committee exhibits that many further data on the topic have been destroyed.
Mace shared the names of eight former members and the workplace of 1 former member shortly after acquiring the paperwork on Monday.
Not one of the former members shared by Mace nonetheless maintain public workplace wherever, however the underlying disclosure gives a glimpse into the legislative department’s latest historical past addressing sexual harassment.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., presents paperwork associated to Rep. Cory Mills,R-Fla., as she participates in a Home Armed Companies Committee listening to with U.S. Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth within the Rayburn Home Workplace Constructing on April 29, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photos
In a post on X, Mace — a member of the Home Oversight Committee — first posted an image of a binder she says contained greater than 1,000 pages of data from the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights starting in 2007 and stretching into 2017.
The settlements are paid by the Workplace of Congressional Office Rights Part 415 fund, which is allowed by the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995.
Amongst these 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 each handed away shortly after leaving Congress.
Mace listed a settlement of $8,000 in 2009 for the workplace of McCarthy, who’s alleged to have been conscious of and performed mistreatment associated to a consensual sexual relationship between an aide and a senior staffer. She additionally confronted allegations of discrimination based mostly on intercourse and incapacity, and reprisal.
For Conyers, a $50,000 cost was made in 2010. He is alleged to have made advances on a staffer. 4 years later, Conyers confronted a hostile office, sexual harassment, age discrimination, and reprisal allegations, leading to improper termination, leading to a $27,111.75 payout.
Former Rep. Meehan and former Rep. Alexander didn’t instantly reply to ABC Information’ request for remark.
Meehan is listed to have two circumstances involving alleged sexual harassment by a senior staffer that the member was conscious of and alleged sexual harassment by the member. The severance pay interval for the complainant is listed at $39,250.
Alexander, who left Congress in 2013 and went on to turn into the Secretary of the Louisiana Division of Veterans Affairs, confronted an allegation of a consensual sexual relationship with a member previous to employment, leading to alleged mistreatment and firing. The payout was listed at $15,000.
An legal professional for Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y., who confronted allegations of hostile office, sexual harassment and inappropriate touching, instructed ABC Information in 2017 that the previous congressman had no data of the funds. There have been three Massa circumstances listed and three settlements totaling to $115,000.
Former Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, instructed ABC Information in 2018 that he had no intention of repaying the $84,000 sexual harassment settlement stemming from a 2014 grievance by a former congressional aide alleging sexual harassment, gender discrimination and retaliation. He resigned in 2018 and died final yr.
The data surrounding 9 circumstances have been supplied Monday to Mace and the Home Oversight Committee by the Workplace of Congressional Office Rights as a part of an preliminary doc manufacturing pursuant to a committee subpoena, in response to a letter signed by John N. Ohlweiler, common counsel on the OCWR, that was despatched to the committee on April 24.
The letter presents “related statistical data” relating to OCWR circumstances from Jan. 1, 1996, by means of Dec. 12, 2018. The OCWR says it “accepted a complete of 349 awards or settlements to resolve complaints in opposition to legislative department workplaces.”
“A few of these awards or settlements could have resolved multiple grievance filed by the identical particular person in opposition to the identical workplace. Of those 349 awards or settlements, there have been 80 that have been settled by the Workplace of a Member of the Home of Representatives or the Workplace of a Senator,” the letter states.
ABC Information has reviewed an April 24 letter to the committee, which doesn’t identify any of the lawmakers whose circumstances are detailed within the 1,000-page doc manufacturing to the Oversight Committee, assembly an April 30 deadline imposed by a committee subpoena. A supply aware of the doc manufacturing confirmed to ABC Information that the names listed by Mace do seem within the 1,000-page response from OCWR, although ABC Information has not but independently reviewed the whole doc manufacturing.
Mace says she is going to launch the paperwork after rigorously reviewing them to make sure that any delicate details about victims is absolutely redacted.
In his letter to the committee, Ohlweiler defined how the Workplace of Congressional Office Rights decided which paperwork met the committee’s goal to research sexual misconduct or harassment involving a member of Congress.
Ohlweiler’s letter notes that the CAA Reform Act of 2018 requires OCR to determine a program for the everlasting retention of data and OCR’s present File Retention Coverage requires the digital preservation of data from all filed circumstances.
“We prioritized our efforts on figuring out these circumstances involving allegations of precise Member misconduct — notably sexual misconduct or sexual harassment — that resulted in awards or settlements, and finding the paperwork related to these circumstances,” Ohlweiler wrote Oversight Chairman James Comer and rating Democrat Robert Garcia.
U.S. Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., speaks to journalists earlier than a closed-door interview with the Home Oversight Committee, on April 30, 2026 within the Rayburn Home Workplace Constructing in Washington, D.C.
Graeme Sloan/Getty Photos
The letter from Ohlweiler explains that from the 80 complete settlements, at the very least 20 case information “have been destroyed pursuant to an ‘OCWR File Retention Coverage’ that required case data to be destroyed ten years after the case was absolutely closed” in accordance with a retention coverage “put in place in 2013 to align OCWR with common government-wide document retention practices.”
The OCWR says it maintained a retention coverage that required case data to be destroyed ten years after the case was absolutely closed — a coverage it put in place in 2013 to align OCWR with “common government-wide document retention practices.”
Ohlweiler’s letter notes that the CAA Reform Act of 2018 requires OCR to determine a program for the everlasting retention of data and OCR’s present File Retention Coverage requires the digital preservation of data from all filed circumstances.
“These 20 destroyed bodily case information dated to the time interval between 1996 and 2003. There are 3 further bodily case information from 2003 and 2004 for which the ‘OCWR File Retention Coverage — Destruction Schedule’ signifies the bodily case information have been destroyed, however we now have not but bodily confirmed that destruction passed off as a result of the related bins from long-term storage have not been examined.”
Ohlweiler says that OCWR does nonetheless possess and has reviewed the unique Settlement Agreements for these 23 circumstances — together with the phrases of the settlements. However Ohlweiler says the paperwork “don’t specify any particulars in regards to the underlying allegations, together with who was accused of committing the alleged misconduct.”
There have been six further circumstances scheduled for destruction between 1997 and 2001 for which OCWR doesn’t have the Settlement Settlement or the case file, in response to Ohlweiler’s letter. Ohlweiler says that data throughout the workplace’s retired content material administration system confirms that these six circumstances have been filed in opposition to member workplaces and have been finally settled.
“For these 6 circumstances, the CMS doesn’t present any data relating to the phrases of the settlement (besides that solely one of many six required a cost from the 416 Fund) or the main points of the underlying allegations,” Ohlweiler wrote.
“The outcomes of my subpoena of Congress’s sexual harassment slush fund are in. 9 members. One thousand pages,” Mace posted on X on Monday. “All data previous to 2004 have been destroyed — which tells you all the things you want to find out about how lengthy this has been buried. We’re reviewing each web page. We’ll identify all 9. We’ll launch the total 1,000 pages — as soon as we verify that personally identifiable data of victims and witnesses has been correctly redacted. Accountability just isn’t a risk. It’s a promise.”
“Learn that once more: they destroyed all of the proof previous to 2004,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Florida, reacted on X.
