Lawmaker who settled harassment complaint won’t seek re-election
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Republican congressman from Pennsylvania who settled a former aide’s sexual harassment complaint with taxpayer money told Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday that he will not seek re-election, according to a spokesman for Ryan.
The complaint by a former aide three decades younger than U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan came to light Jan. 20 in a New York Times report, citing unnamed people. The accuser’s lawyer, Alexis Ronickher, called the allegations “well-grounded” and a “serious sexual harassment claim.”
Meehan, 62, is a four-term congressman. The married father of three had described the woman in an interview as a “soul mate,” and acknowledged that he had lashed out when he discovered she had begun dating another man. But he contended he had done nothing wrong.
The Times report spurred Ryan to call for an Ethics Committee investigation and Meehan’s removal from the committee. Ryan also told Meehan to repay the money and the Ethics Committee opened an investigation into whether Meehan sexually harassed the woman and misused official resources.
Meehan is the fifth member of Congress to resign or say he won’t run again amid a national reckoning over sexual misconduct in the workplace.
The former aide made the complaint last summer to the congressional Office of Compliance after Meehan became hostile toward her when she did not reciprocate his romantic interest in her.
The settlement had been kept secret, and Meehan refused to say how much taxpayer money he paid as part of the agreement.