Rep. Chuck Edwards files complaint against House Ethics
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Rep. Chuck Edwards at the Capitol on Sept. 2. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) filed a complaint against the top Republican and Democrat on the House Ethics Committee on Tuesday, accusing the lawmakers who investigated him of breaking their own rules.
Why it matters: Edwards is escalating his fight against the committee just two weeks after the House voted 413-2 to censure him over its findings that he violated House rules related to sexual harassment and a hostile workplace.
- Edwards' complaint asks the Office of Congressional Conduct to investigate Ethics Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) and ranking member Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.) over their handling of his case.
- The Ethics Committee has previously disputed Edwards' account of the process. When it released its report last month, Guest and DeSaulnier said Edwards had agreed to waive certain procedural steps after reviewing a draft of the report several days earlier.
- The committee's findings follow Axios' reporting that Edwards singled out two young female staffers in their 20s for special attention that multiple sources described as inappropriate.
Driving the news: "There was nothing ethical about this process," Edwards said in announcing the complaint.
- He alleges the committee circumvented its own rules by adopting its final report and recommending his censure before receiving his formal response.
- Edwards has maintained that his conduct did not violate House rules, though he did apologize to his wife, family, and the two women he allegedly harassed.
- The committee declined to comment.
Catch up quick: The Ethics report's findings corroborated several anecdotes previously reported by Axios, including handwritten correspondence, personal gifts, drinking outings, and casino trips, and cited them as supporting evidence for its findings.
- He told one staffer that she had "written a complex chapter in my heart" shortly before she was set to leave his office in a three-page handwritten letter previously reported by Axios.
- Edwards gave the two young female staffers numerous gifts, including jewelry worth over $1,000, as well as "designer purses, guns, shoes, flowers, a laptop and cell phone, KitchenAid mixer, robotic vacuum, vacations, tickets to performances, and one-on-one dinners," the Ethics panel found.
What they're saying: "He has no remorse, and now he's trying to turn the tables and say somehow ethics did something wrong," Rep. Teresa Leger- Fernandez (D-NM), the chair of the Democratic Women's Caucus, told Axios.
- "It just shows you how hard to touch the man is," she added of Edwards.
- DeSaulnier told Axios he had not yet read Edwards' complaint but was confident the committee followed the proper process.
