News

Meadows 'stonewalled' ethics office, Bryson says

By Bill Moss, Published: August 31, 2016

Rick Bryson, the Democratic nominee for the NC 11th Congressional District, has scheduled a press conference to talk about an ethics investigation into the way his opponent paid his chief of staff after allegations of sexual harassment.

“The independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) has ruled that the present congressman’s conduct in office has broken congressional ethics standards,” Bryson said in a news release. That characterization overstates what the OCE said or what it can do.
In its referral to the full House Ethics Committee, the OCE said “there is substantial reason to believe that Rep. Meadows retained an employee who did not perform duties commensurate with the compensation the employee received and certified that the compensation met House standards, in violation of House rule and standards of conduct.” Its referral is not a ruling but a recommendation that the full committee continue the probe. The Ethics Committee announced on Aug. 17 that it would review the OCE report.
Meadows self-reported the matter to the Ethics Committee in November 2015. His attorney has argued that the congressman was proactive in dealing the harassment complaints against his chief of staff, Kenny West, and after letting West go paid him severance in the “belief that these severance payments were consistent with House Rules and practice.”

“What is new on this story is how Meadows has attempted to stonewall the investigation,” Bryson said. “Instead of cooperating with the independent OCE, he has chosen to deal only with the House Ethics Committee, which is made up of his cronies.
“So what we have here is both a misuse of public funds and a working environment in which women are unsafe — and a congressman who is bent on obscuring the facts,” Bryson added in the news release.
He scheduled the news conference for 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 6, at the Union Hall, 45 Sardis Road, Asheville.