Republican Congressman Blake Farenthold faced new claims about his conduct on Friday as a source alleged his office was highly sexualised.
He is already facing a fresh ethics probe over old charges that he sexually harassed a former staffer.
The House Ethics Committee dismissed the complaint in 2015. It’s taking a new look at the case, USA Today reported, now that Texas Republican Farenthold’s $84,000 payout of taxpayer funds to the ex-aide, Lauren Greene, has been revealed.
Now one former aide, who lodged a different complaint in 2016, has been revealed by Politico to have painted a picture of an office gone wild.
A source told the website that the complaint had alleged staff ‘drank at work and discussed sex tapes, strip clubs, which Fox News anchors had breast implants, and lobbyists who texted photos of their genitals’.
In once incident, a staff member suggested an aide attend the opening of a Twin Peaks ‘breastaurant’ in Texas, and put it on the congressman’s social media account.
Texas Republican Blake Farenthold (right) is facing a fresh ethics probe over old charges that he sexually harassed a former staffer
The House Ethics Committee dismissed the complaint in 2015. It’s taking a new look at the case ow that Farenthold’s $84,000 payout of taxpayer funds to the ex-aide, Lauren Greene, has been revealed
A former communications director to the Republican on Capitol Hill, Greene accused the congressman and his chief of staff of ‘hostile conduct’ in a 2014 lawsuit in which she also claimed that Farenthold sexually harassed her multiple times
The press secretary, Elizabeth Peace, told the staffer: ‘It’s not only a bad idea, it is a complete put-down to women and body image everywhere.’
A second complaint was also lodged and after the complaints, Farenthold brought in an ‘independent investigative team’ to look into the claims, his office told Politico on Friday.
‘If the constituents [knew] what happened in his office on a daily basis, they would never reelect him,’ a source told Politico.
His spokeswoman, Stacey Daniels, told the website that lawyers had been brought in but declined to disclose their findings.
The disclosures came hard on the heels of the claims from Greene.
A former communications director to the Republican on Capitol Hill, Greene accused the congressman and his chief of staff of ‘hostile conduct’ in a 2014 lawsuit in which she also claimed that Farenthold sexually harassed her multiple times.
Two representatives and one senator resigned this week in disgrace as ethics investigations were opened into their alleged misconduct. Farenthold could be the next Member of Congress to go as the net comes down on legislators.
As many as 40 could be exposed in external investigations underway by major news outlets.
Greene sued Farenthold for wrongful termination in 2014 in a case that the lawmaker settled with funds from a federal Office of Compliance account. He says he will pay out of pocket now, but the damage may already have been done.
Yesterday, Congressman Trent Franks, an Arizona Republican, abruptly quit after he learned that he was under investigation for approaching two female staffers about becoming surrogates for a child he and his wife hoped to have.
Senator Al Franken also resigned on Thursday in an unapologetic Senate speech in which he denied allegations of groping but said he’d step down in the coming weeks, anyway.
Earlier this week on Tuesday, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the longest-serving member of the House, retired and endorsed his son after former staffers said he behaved inappropriately.
CNN and the Washington Post are said to be conducting through probes of sexual harassment allegations that could lead to bombshell revelations about politicians in both political parties.
The allegations against Farenthold are not new. Greene sued him in open court in 2014. It was the payout that was concealed until Politico brought it to light last week.
According to court documents, Farenthold allegedly told Greene that he was ‘estranged from his wife and had not had sex with her in years,’ while another staffer told her the congressman had ‘sexual fantasies’ and ‘wet dreams’ about her.
Greene revealed in the legal complaint that the congressman ‘regularly drank to excess, and because of his tendency to flirt, the staffers who accompanied him to Capitol Hill functions would joke they had to be on “red head patrol to keep him out of trouble.'”
‘On one occasion, prior to February 2014, during a staff meeting at which [Greene] was in attendance, Farenthold disclosed that a female lobbyist had propositioned him for a “threesome,”‘ the complaint read.
On another occasion, the chief of staff, Bob Haueter, complained about Greene’s shirt claiming it was ‘transparent and showed [Greene’s] nipples.’
Farenthold told his personal assistant that as far as he was concerned, Greene ‘could show her nipples whenever she wanted to,’ the complaint alleged.
In the lawsuit, Greene said Farenthold refused to meet with her one-on-one, which would put a female staffer at a professional disadvantage.
When Greene complained in June 2014 about Haueter’s behavior she was ‘marginalized and undermined’ by Farenthold, Politico said, and then fired several weeks later.
According to the court documents, Greene began working in Farenthold’s office in February 2013 as the new media director. The following January she was promoted to communications director after the congressman’s previous spokesperson gave notice.
According to the former aide, several weeks before her promotion, she told Farenthold’s executive assistant Emily Wilkes that the congressman ‘was awkward toward her at work and regularly seemed to try to avoid interacting with her.’
Farenthold wouldn’t confirm that the settlement in question belonged to the case from his office when he was asked about it last Friday, but Greene has since appeared on CNN
Wilkes in turn shared that the congressman and father of two ‘had admitted to being attracted’ to Greene and having ‘sexual fantasies’ and ‘wet dreams’ about her.
‘Farenthold knew that Wilkes and Plaintiff were friends and confidantes and that Wilkes would likely convey his comments to Plaintiff, which is exactly what happened on this and other occasions,’ the lawsuit contends.
After finding out the sexual fantasies, Greene said she was ‘anxious’ to avoid one-on-one meetings with the congressman, and he seemed to avoid her, too, making it difficult to her do her job.
The court documents also claim that the congressman ‘regularly’ made comments toward Green that were meant to determine her interest in a ‘sexual relationship.’
One time ‘Farenthold told Greene that she had something on her skirt and that he hoped his comment wouldn’t be taken for sexual harassment,’ the complaint says.
‘A reasonable person would infer that Farenthold was joking that she had semen on her skirt,’ it goes on to say.
Another time Greene says the congressman told her that her skirt was partly unzipped. Upon inspecting her skit in the bathroom ‘she realized that the opening was so small that Farenthold would have had to be staring at her closely to notice.’
That was the catalyst for the lawsuit Greene filed in the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, alleging gender discrimination, sexual harassment and a hostile work environment.
Senator Al Franken resigned Thursday in an unapologetic Senate speech in which he denied allegations of groping but said he’d step down in the coming weeks, anyway
The suit was later dropped when both parties reached a settlement, Politico reported.
Greene’s payout was revealed after Rep. Gregg Harper, a Republican from Mississippi, who chairs the House Administration Committee, told lawmakers last Friday morning in a closed-door meeting that only one House office in the past five years had used an Office of Compliance account to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit.
Neither the congressman nor Greene’s lawyer would confirm that that $84,000 referenced by Harper was indeed the ex-aide’s settlement.
‘While I 100 per cent support more transparency with respect to claims against members of Congress, I can neither confirm nor deny that settlement involved my office as the Congressional Accountability Act prohibits me from answering that question,’ Farenthold said.
Greene’s lawyer, Les Alderman of Alderman, Devorsetz & Hora PLLC, also refused to tell Politico if that settlement corresponded to Greene.
Politico’s Rachael Bade put two-and-two together after receiving a copy of a statement that Greene and Farenthold prepared at the time of the settlement, however, but was never released.
‘[A]fter it became clear that further litigating this case would come at great expense to all involved – including the taxpayers – the parties engaged in mediation with a court-appointed mediator,’ the statement read. ‘After extensive discussion and consideration, the parties jointly agreed to accept the solution proposed by the mediator.’
Earlier this week on Tuesday, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the longest-serving member of the House, retired and endorsed his son after former staffers said he behaved inappropriately
‘The parties believe that the mediator’s solution saves the parties, and the taxpayers, significant sums that would be expended in further discovery and/or trial,’ it continued.
The statement also tried to distance Farenthold from the allegations saying that the congressman ‘disagrees strongly’ with Greene’s assertions and ‘adamantly denies that he engaged in any wrongdoing.’
The document also said that ‘both parties deny all liability’ and confirmed that Farenthold and Greene signed a confidentiality agreement.
Greene later confirmed in an appearance on CNN that she was legally prohibited from discussing the settlement. She said she would waive confidentiality so she could tell her story if the congressman would.
The former Capitol Hill staffer says she had to leave Washington as a result of the court case and has struggled ever since to find work.
‘It was certainly a difficult decision to make. I really just felt that I had to stand up for myself. I just thought that I would have regretted it for the rest of my life if I didn’t, and I just felt that it was extremely important that I stand up for myself,’ she told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.