BuzzFeed is suing the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to get the committee to turn over information related to the so-called Steele dossier in an effort to bolster its defense in a lawsuit related to the dossier.
The news outlet is facing a lawsuit from Aleksej Gubarev, a Russian businessman who claims he was libeled when the news outlet published the dossier last year.
The document, funded partly by the DNC and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, contains explosive and in some cases unverified allegations about President Trump’s ties to Russia.
BuzzFeed is arguing that the DNC has information that could link Gubarev to the 2016 Russian hack into the committee's servers, which would undermine his libel complaint.
“As part of the discovery process, BuzzFeed is attempting to verify claims in the dossier that relate to the hacking of the DNC — which, the dossier alleges, was done with the support of Aleksej Gubarev, a Russian businessman," BuzzFeed News spokesman Matt Mittenthal told The Hill in a statement.
"We’re asking a federal court to force the DNC to follow the law and allow BuzzFeed to fully defend its First Amendment rights.”
According to Vanity Fair, which was the first news outlet to report on the lawsuit, the DNC is arguing that providing such information could make it vulnerable to another cyberattack.
BuzzFeed was the first outlet to publish the dossier a year ago.
News of BuzzFeed’s legal complaint comes a day after Foreign Policy reported that the news outlet has hired a former FBI and cybersecurity official to verify allegations contained in the Steele dossier.
The document has been a source of controversy, and recently re-entered the spotlight as part of a Republican-crafted memo alleging bias within the Justice Department.
The document accuses senior Justice Department officials of improperly using information from the dossier to obtain surveillance warrants on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Last month, Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, sued BuzzFeed News for defamation over the publication of the dossier. BuzzFeed has stood by its decision, arguing the dossier was of significant public interest.
BuzzFeed News published the first tranche of FBI documents related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into the 2016 election and Russian efforts to aid Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Many of roughly 500 pages of documents – in a package BuzzFeed called “The Mueller Report’s Secret Memos” – relate to interviews with FBI agents. Various email correspondence is also included.
BuzzFeed and CNN sued for access to Mueller’s witness interview notes. In October, a judge ordered the Justice Department to release new tranches of the notes monthly to the two news organizations.
BuzzFeed News published the first tranche of FBI documents related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into the 2016 election and Russian efforts to aid Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
The documents are heavily redacted and feature some of the headline names from the two-year Mueller investigation, including Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and fixer, and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, both of whom are currently serving federal prison sentences.
More: Mueller documents: Manafort pushed Ukraine hack theory
In one document, former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon refers to Manafort in an Nov. 5, 2016, email to Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, days before the presidential election and months after Manafort supposedly parted ways with the campaign.
“We need to avoid this guy like the plague,” Bannon wrote to Kushner. “They are going to try and say the Russians worked with WikiLeaks to give this victory to us. Paul is a nice guy but can’t let word get out he is advising us.”
Manafort had started the email string on the subject of “Securing the Victory,” telling Kushner that he was “really feeling good about our prospects.” Fox News host Sean Hannity was also mentioned in Manafort’s note and in other documents.
Russia, if You’re Listening
Another revelation from the cache was a reflection made to the FBI by Rick Gates, Trump’s former deputy campaign chair, about then-candidate Trump’s infamous comment about Russia in July 2016.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said, referring to Hillary Clinton’s deleted messages.
The remark was an ad lib, Gates contended. The same document showed Gates remembering staff conversations that “someone out there” must have the missing Clinton emails.
Gates also said Manafort had offered the theory that Ukraine, not Russia. was behind a June 2016 hack on the Democratic National Committee computers. That idea, which has been discredited by U.S. intelligence agencies, is still pushed by Trump and others, and has become central to the current Democratic impeachment inquiry into the president.
For what country?
In another document posted by BuzzFeed, drawn from the summary of Bannon’s interview with the FBI, the former Goldman Sachs investment banker recalled having first met Trump in 2010. Conservative activist David Bossie, president of Citizens United, was also present, and said that Trump was thinking of running for president in 2012. According to the recap, Bannon asked, “for what country?”
After making requests through the Freedom of Information Act, BuzzFeed and CNN sued the U.S. government for the right to see the primary-source information that Mueller’s team didn’t disclose when it published its 448-page report in March. Justice Department lawyers say the material could run to 18 billion pages.
The process of releasing all the documents monthly will probably take eight or more years.
I do not believe there exists any attorney who has the ability to defend anyone who participated in this operation, but, then again, we are dealing with "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending) so anything is possible.
#perkinscoiesucks
Since Cernovich has taken credit for breaking the bombshell that vacated to Michigan 13th Congressional District Office and caused a Special Election for Michigan, we must also honor him for all the candidates who filed to run, especially Brenda Jones and Rashida Tlaib, who are illegitimate elected officials.
Story Published 3 weeks ago on November 21, 2017 By Tom Shadilay
Mike Cernovich
The internet is exploding at the sensational breaking news by Mike Cernovich about Democrat Rep. John Conyers’ repeated sexual abuse of female staffers and use of taxpayer funds for settlements related to that abuse.
Buzzfeed recognizes Mike Cernovich gave them the story, stating:
“Cernovich said he gave the documents to BuzzFeed News for vetting and further reporting, and because he said if he published them himself, Democrats and congressional leaders would “try to discredit the story by attacking the messenger.” He provided them without conditions. BuzzFeed News independently confirmed the authenticity of the documents with four people directly involved with the case, including the accuser.”
BuzzFeed’s article continues:
“Documents from the complaint obtained by BuzzFeed News 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.”
Over on Twitter, reaction to the news of Cernovich’s involvement in the story has been swift and sometimes salty:
Josh Hammer
✔
@josh_hammer
I don’t think we’re talking enough about the fact that the guy who might bring down John Conyers is…Mike Cernovich.
What a freaking time to be alive.
3,638
11:12 PM - 20 Nov 2017
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Steadman™
✔
@AsteadWesley
A lot going on here:
1) John Conyers settled a serious sex harassment claim and taxpayers are kept in the dark
2) Buzzfeed got the documents from Mike Cernovich. https://www.buzzfeed.com/paulmcleod/she-complained-that-a-powerful-congressman-harassed-her?utm_term=.huLPp87Dw#.qyA0N8RQK …
She Said That A Powerful Congressman Harassed Her. Here’s Why You Didn’t Hear Her Story.
“When you make private settlements, it doesn’t warn the next woman or the next person going into that situation.”
buzzfeednews.com
1,056
10:40 PM - 20 Nov 2017 · Washington, DC
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Ben Schreckinger
✔
@SchreckReports
“Mike Cernovich gave Buzzfeed News documents incriminating powerful Democratic Rep. John Conyers for sexual harassment” is a sentence i never expected to write https://www.buzzfeed.com/paulmcleod/she-complained-that-a-powerful-congressman-harassed-her …
She Said That A Powerful Congressman Harassed Her. Here’s Why You Didn’t Hear Her Story.
“When you make private settlements, it doesn’t warn the next woman or the next person going into that situation.”
buzzfeednews.com
905
9:55 PM - 20 Nov 2017
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Charles Johnson
✔
@Green_Footballs
The accusations against John Conyers are sickening. But it’s almost as sickening that whoever leaked this stuff gave it to far right conspiracy loon @Cernovich first. WTF is going on in this country?
341
11:00 PM - 20 Nov 2017
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I might be going out on a limb here, but thanks to @Cernovich, I think you're going to have a better day tomorrow than John Conyers. #UnsealTheRecords pic.twitter.com/Jmbeh2DALJ
— Barry Cunningham (@barrycunningham) November 21, 2017
this, but also I think @Cernovich has, oddly, demonstrated over the past year that he has some good sources https://t.co/k9MzUG1REc
— Kieran Delamont (@k_delamont) November 21, 2017
Check out Mike’s Periscope below to hear his full thoughts on this bombshell report.
Congressman John Conyers is a sexual predator, and Paul Ryan covered it all up https://t.co/rHAzX4Hevo
— Mike Cernovich 🇺🇸 (@Cernovich) November 21, 2017
These are the faces that are trafficking tiny humans by profiting from Medicaid and no one has a problem with this because they fund political campaigns.
Why am I the only person who sees a problem with private corporations becoming the legal guardians of children who have been removed from the home by CPS to be placed into foster care and adopted out for being poor, by using Medicaid funds, intended for these children and the families, as alternative investment opportunities on Wall Street?
Once a child is under the legal aegis of a private corporation, the private corporation has access and control of all Social Security Trust Accounts of that child, and can use the child as chattel to leverage mortgages.
Barclays Capital Inc., BofA Merrill Lynch and UBS Securities LLC are serving as representatives of the underwriters and joint book-running managers for the offering. Raymond James & Associates, Inc., SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc., BMO Capital Markets Corp. and Avondale Partners, LLC are acting as co-managers.
Not one penny will go back into the Social Security Trust Fund, and, more than likely, the money will be used for national and international real estate ventures and investment ventures to profit from the spoils of war, like trafficking more children through a global expansion of its "mentoring" programs, and its intellectual property ownership of humans.
The banks now own humans and they started with the child.
A recent BuzzFeed News investigation into the nation’s largest for-profit foster care company revealed deaths, sex abuse, and serious lapses in the training and oversight of foster parents.
The investigation into National Mentor Holdings found instances of long-term sex abuse in Maryland by Mentor foster fathers, widespread problems with Mentor documented by the state of Texas, and at least six deaths of children in the custody of Mentor since 2005.
Mentor trades on the New York Stock Exchange as Civitas Solutions Inc., which reported $1.2 billion in revenue last year. Companies can often seem faceless, but like all public companies, Civitas is governed by a board of directors.
BuzzFeed News decided to find out whether members of the board knew about the problems exposed by the recent investigation, and if so, ask what they planned to do about it.
For some children, it’s a question of life and death.
Alexandria Hill
Sherill Small, a Mentor foster parent in Texas, murdered 2-year-old Alexandria Hill in 2013, smashing in her skull. Mentor had placed the little girl with Small despite warning signs that she wasn’t fit to be a foster parent.
From September through December 2012, Small had taken in five foster children, but every one of them had been removed as “failed placements.” Small, according to an internal Mentor document obtained by BuzzFeed News, “reported feeling stressed out, and will express that she is unable to care for the children in the home.” The Mentor document also warns that personnel from the Texas state Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) program “felt the children should not be in the home at that time.” Less than a month after that report, Mentor placed little Alexandria with Small, the foster mother who would become her murderer.
Aram Roston / BuzzFeed News
In Maryland, Stephen Merritt, one of several Mentor foster parents at a compound called Last Chance Farm, pleaded guilty in 2011 to sexually abusing multiple boys in his care. Another foster father on same compound, Tracy Grant Bayne, also admitted to abusing a boy. Again, warning signs weren’t heeded. As far back as 2004, a boy had complained to his Mentor caseworker that he was being abused. The caseworker sent him back to Merritt. Police investigated allegations of abuse twice, but didn’t find enough to press charges.
A psychotherapist wrote Mentor in 2010, warning of “huge red flags” in Merritt’s interaction with a child. But it would be another year before police finally arrested Merritt and stopped the abuse.
An analysis of Texas data by BuzzFeed News found that Mentor ranked last among large foster placement providers in the state, based on the number of severe violations per home. Texas regulators found more than 100 serious problems in Mentor foster homes in the last two years, including, but not limited to, instances of children being slapped, hit with belts, and struck.
In Georgia, where the state grades child-placing agencies, Mentor’s fared poorly as well. Of the six branches Mentor runs in Georgia, not one scored an average grade above the median in the 10 most recent quarters.
State and local governments have long worked with nonprofits and religious groups to help find good homes for children whose parents can’t care for them. But over the past several decades, for-profit companies have started winning contracts to manage foster care placements. Former Mentor employees said that the pressure to make profits sometimes led to Mentor cutting corners on protecting the children — a charge Mentor strongly disputed in BuzzFeed News' original story. Mentor also said it has helped thousands of children, and pointed to Maryland, where state regulators recently gave the company high marks.
In 2006, National Mentor Holdings was bought for $242 million in cash by Vestar Capital Partners, a giant hedge fund based in New York City. The company went public last year under the name Civitas, but Vestar still owns about two-thirds of the stock. Three Vestar employees sit on Civitas’ board: Chris Durbin, James Elrod Jr., and Kevin Mundt.
When BuzzFeed News called Vestar to ask to interview its employees after the investigation was published, a spokesperson said, “Vestar declined to comment.”
These Board Members are beholden to no one, not one elected official, not one U.S. citizen, not one parent and can never, ever, be criminally prosecuted for Medicaid fraud, civil rights violations, or your basic human trafficking. That is why I have always been a SOX gal.
Before the story ran, the spokesperson had provided this statement: “Vestar shares MENTOR Network’s belief that one tragedy within any foster care program is one too many. Mentor’s investments over the past decade to strengthen service quality while expanding programming have been fully supported by Vestar. We are proud to be associated with an organization that has enhanced the lives of tens of thousands of children and adolescents and adults with disabilities.”
Federico Peña, Pamela Lenehan, Guy Sansone, and Greg Torres
Federico Peña isn’t a Civitas board member but he’s a “senior advisor” to Vestar. He’s also a powerful political figure, a former national co-chair of the Obama presidential campaign and a secretary of transportation and a secretary of energy under President Bill Clinton. Reached after the story ran, and told about the problems at Mentor, he said he had not read the BuzzFeed News story. “"I’m not involved in that matter but thank you for the call and I have to go."
Pamela Lenehan, who was elected to the Civitas board in 2008, did not answer numerous phone calls from BuzzFeed News.
Guy Sansone, a healthcare consultant, did not respond to a phone call and email placed by BuzzFeed News.
Greg Torres – former president and CEO of Mentor from 1996-2004 – did not respond to a phone call and email placed by BuzzFeed News.
BuzzFeed News did not reach Patrick M. Gray, an accountant and former audit partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Patrick M. Gray, Edward Murphy and Bruce Nardella.
Edward Murphy and Bruce Nardella currently work at Mentor. After BuzzFeed News had started contacting the other board members and before calling Murphy and Nardella, a Mentor spokesperson sent a statement on behalf of the entire board:
“Service quality and outcomes across The MENTOR Network are of paramount importance to the entire Board. We were aware of matters raised in your story, and especially the tragedies in Maryland and Texas. We are also aware of how profoundly the organization has been impacted by these tragedies, as well as the comprehensive actions management has taken in an effort to ensure the safety and well-being of the children and adolescents served in MENTOR’s programs.
“As a Board, we appreciate the challenges associated with foster care, and understand that while no provider will ever achieve perfection, each, including MENTOR, has a responsibility to strive for it in partnership with public agencies. We recognize that the good work of the MENTOR team has enhanced the lives of tens of thousands of children at-risk and adults with disabilities. However, we have also insisted that the organization learn from each mistake in order to enhance its programs and protect those it is privileged to support.”
An earlier version of this story contained remarks attributed to Civitas Solutions board member Patrick M. Gray. In fact, BuzzFeed News did not speak to that Patrick M. Gray but to a different person with the same name who claimed to be a Civitas board member.
While sexual harassment in the workplace is a repulsive, arcane social norm that needs to seriously be addressed, so is the rampant fraud and public corruption that takes place in the Congress, the States, County and City governments.
Consider this an introduction because there is much, much more to this story.
So, sit back, relax, and let the dirt come out, because it is not going to be what you think.
The back story is going to be of epic proportions.
Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.
“When you make private settlements, it doesn’t warn the next woman or the next person going into that situation.”
Michigan Rep. John Conyers, a Democrat and the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives, settled a wrongful dismissal complaint in 2015 with a former employee who alleged she was fired because she would not “succumb to [his] sexual advances.”
Documents from the complaint obtained by BuzzFeed News 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.
And 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, she told BuzzFeed News, 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. BuzzFeed News is withholding the woman’s name 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 over 20 years for various violations, including sexual harassment. 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.
“I was basically blackballed. There was nowhere I could go."
The woman who settled with Conyers launched the complaint in 2014 with Congress’s Office of Compliance alleging that she was fired for refusing his sexual advances and ended up facing a daunting process that ended with a confidentiality agreement in exchange for a settlement of more than $27,000. Her settlement, however, came from Conyers’ office budget rather than the designated fund for settlements.
Congress has no human resources department. Instead, congressional employees have 180 days to report a sexual harassment incident to the Office of Compliance, which then leads to a lengthy process involves counseling, mediation, and requires the signing of a confidentiality agreement before a complaint can go forward.
After this, an employee can choose to take the matter to federal district court, but another avenue is available: an administrative hearing, after which a negotiation and settlement may follow.
Some members of Congress have raised major concerns with the current system over the years, but the calls for an overhaul have grown louder in the post-Weinstein era. Members have argued that 90 days is too long to make a person continue working in the same environment with their harasser; that interns and fellows should be eligible to pursue complaints through this process; and that it is unfair for a victim to have to pay for legal representation while the office of the harasser is represented for free by the House's counsel.
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 complainant would receive a total payment of $27,111.75 over the three months, after which point she would be removed from the payroll, according to the document.
The draft agreement, below, viewed by BuzzFeed News was unsigned, but congressional employment records match the timing and amounts outlined in the document. The woman left the office and never went public with her story.
The process was “disgusting,” said Matthew Peterson, who worked as a law clerk representing the complainant, and who listed as a signatory to some of the documents.
“It is a designed cover-up,” said Peterson, who declined to discuss details of the case but agreed to characterize it in general terms. “You feel like they were betrayed by their government just for coming forward. It’s like being abused twice.”
Other lawyers named as representing the accuser could not be reached for comment. The Office of Compliance did not confirm or deny that they had dealt with the case.
“You feel like they were betrayed by their government just for coming forward. It’s like being abused twice.”
“Pursuant to the Congressional Accountability Act, the OOC cannot comment on whether matters have or have not been filed with the office,” Laura Cech, publications and outreach manager of the Office of Compliance, told BuzzFeed News in an email when asked to comment on this case.
Two staffers alleged in their signed affidavits that Conyers used congressional resources to fly in women they believed he was having affairs with. Another said she was tasked with driving women to and from Conyers’ apartment and hotel rooms.
Rep. Conyers did not admit fault as part of the settlement. His office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Monday.
The documents were first provided to BuzzFeed News by Mike Cernovich, the men's rights figure turned pro-Trump media activist who propagated a number of false conspiracy theories including the “Pizzagate” conspiracy. Cernovich said he gave the documents to BuzzFeed News for vetting and further reporting, and because he said if he published them himself, Democrats and congressional leaders would “try to discredit the story by attacking the messenger.” He provided them without conditions. BuzzFeed News independently confirmed the authenticity of the documents with four people directly involved with the case, including the accuser.
In her complaint, the former employee said Conyers repeatedly asked her for sexual favors and often asked her to join him in a hotel room. On one occasion, she alleges that Conyers asked her to work out of his room for the evening, but when she arrived the congressman started talking about his sexual desires. She alleged he then told her she needed to “touch it,” in reference to his penis, or find him a woman who would meet his sexual demands.
She alleged Conyers made her work nights, evenings, and holidays to keep him company.
In another incident, the former employee alleged the congressman insisted she stay in his room while they traveled together for a fundraising event. When she told him that she would not stay with him, she alleged he told her to “just cuddle up with me and caress me before you go.”
“Rep. Conyers strongly postulated that the performing of personal service or favors would be looked upon favorably and lead to salary increases or promotions,” the former employee said in the documents.
Three other staff members provided affidavits submitted to the Office Of Compliance that outlined a pattern of behavior from Conyers that included touching the woman in a sexual manner and growing angry when she brought her husband around.
One affidavit from a former female employee states that she was tasked with flying in women for the congressman. “One of my duties while working for Rep. Conyers was to keep a list of women that I assumed he was having affairs with and call them at his request and, if necessary, have them flown in using Congressional resources,” said her affidavit. (A second staffer alleged in an interview that Conyers used taxpayer resources to fly women to him.)
The employee said in her affidavit that Conyers also made sexual advances toward her: “I was driving the Congressman in my personal car and was resting my hand on the stick shift. Rep. Conyers reached over and began to caress my hand in a sexual manner.”
The woman said she told Conyers she was married and not interested in pursuing a sexual relationship, according to the affidavit. She said she was told many times by constituents that it was well-known that Conyers had sexual relationships with his staff, and said she and other female staffers felt this undermined their credibility.
“I am personally aware of several women who have experienced the same or similar sexual advances made towards them by Rep[.] John Conyers,” she said in her affidavit. A male employee wrote that he witnessed Rep. Conyers rub the legs and other body parts of the complainant “in what appeared to be a sexual manner” and saw the congressman rub and touch other women “in an inappropriate manner.” The employee said he confronted Conyers about this behavior.
“Rep. Conyers said he needed to be ‘more careful’ because bad publicity would not be helpful as he runs for re-election. He ended the conversation with me by saying he would ‘work on’ his behavior,” the male staffer said in his affidavit.
“I don’t think any allegations should be buried...and that’s for anyone, not just for this particular office".
The male employee said that in 2011 Conyers complained a female staffer was “too old” and said he wanted to let her go.
The employee said he set up a meeting in December 2011 to discuss “mistreatment of staff and his misuse of federal resources.”
The affidavit says that Conyers “agreed that he would work on making improvements as long as I worked directly with him and stopped writing memos and emails about concerns.”
Another female employee also attested that she witnessed Conyer’s advances, and said she was asked to transport women to him. “I was asked on multiple occasions to pick up women and bring them to Mr. Conyers[‘] apartment, hotel rooms, etc.”
BuzzFeed News reached out to several former Conyers staffers, all of whom did not want to speak on the record. One former staffer, who did not want to be named, said she was frustrated by the secretive complaint process.
“I don’t think any allegations should be buried...and that’s for anyone, not just for this particular office, because it doesn’t really allow other people to see who these individuals are,” said the former staffer. “When you make private settlements, it doesn’t warn the next woman or the next person going into that situation.”
Another staffer said that Conyers’ reputation made people fearful to speak out against him.
Aside from being the longest-serving House member and the ranking member of a powerful committee, Conyers is a civil rights icon. He was lauded by Martin Luther King Jr. and is a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
“Your story won’t do shit to him,” said the staffer. “He’s untouchable.”
In a statement to BuzzFeed News, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said she was not aware of the settlement.
“The current process includes the signing of non-disclosure agreements by the parties involved. Congresswoman Jackie Speier has introduced legislation that will provide much-needed transparency on these agreements and make other critical reforms,” Pelosi said in the statement. “I strongly support her efforts.”
A spokesperson for John Boehner, who was the speaker of the House when the settlement was made, did not respond to a BuzzFeed News request for comment on Monday.
The documents also show that there was a belief among at least some staffers that the office was a jealous environment. Some of the documents allege Conyers offered his protection when staff would complain to him about management in the office.
California Democrat Rep. Speier and colleagues in the House and Senate have introduced legislation that would overhaul the complaint process, including requiring OOC to publicly name the office of any member who enters into a settlement.
The bill would also allow complainants to waive mediation and counseling, set up a victims' counsel, and require all congressional offices to go through harassment training every year.
Conyers’ office has a history of ethical run-ins. In 2016, his former chief of staff Cynthia Martin pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property after she refused to reimburse $16,500 that was mistakenly deposited in her account.
A preliminary investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics found that Conyers continued to pay Martin more than $13,000 per month when she was supposedly on unpaid leave.
In 2006, two former aides complained that Conyers made them babysit his children, run errands, and work on his reelection campaign while drawing their congressional salaries. There was also a bizarre incident in 2005 when 60 Thanksgiving turkeys, given to his staff to disperse to people, may have gone missing.
Conyers’ wife, former Detroit city councilor Monica Conyers, was sentenced to three years in prison over bribery charges in 2010. (One of the documents alleged Conyers began “aggressively acting out his sexual harassment behavior” following this.) Last year the couple renewed their vows.
