Lawmaker accused of misconduct, taxpayer-funded settlement

WASHINGTON — Rep. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa., who has taken a leading role in fighting sexual harassment in Congress, used thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to settle his own misconduct complaint after a former aide accused him last year of making unwanted romantic overtures to her, according to several people familiar with the settlement.

On Saturday, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., called for an Ethics Committee investigation after the New York Times report on Meehan.

In a statement, Ryan’s spokesman said the allegations must be investigated “fully and immediately” by the House Ethics Committee and that Meehan would immediately submit himself to the committee’s review. Meehan is being removed from his position on the committee, and Ryan told Meehan that he should repay any taxpayer funds that were used to settle the case, Ryan’s spokesman said.

A married father of three, Meehan, 62, had long expressed interest in the personal life of the aide, who was decades younger and had regarded the congressman as a father figure, according to three people who worked with the office and four others with whom the aide discussed her tenure there.

But after the woman became involved in a serious relationship with someone outside the office last year, Meehan professed his romantic desires for her — first in person, and then in a handwritten letter — and he grew hostile when she did not reciprocate, the people familiar with her time in the office said.

Life in the office became untenable, so she initiated the complaint process and ultimately left the job. She later reached a confidential agreement with Meehan’s office that included a settlement for an undisclosed amount to be paid from Meehan’s congressional office fund.

Earlier Saturday, John Elizandro, Meehan’s communications director, issued a statement saying that the congressman “denies these allegations” and “has always treated his colleagues, male and female, with the utmost respect and professionalism.”

Meehan called on the former aide to waive the confidentiality agreement in the settlement “to ensure a full and open airing of all the facts.” Elizandro did not respond to follow-up questions about why Meehan had agreed to the settlement and the confidentiality provision if the accusations were false.

Alexis Ronickher, a lawyer for the former aide, called Meehan’s statement “a desperate effort to preserve his career.” She said the congressman had demanded confidentiality in the first place, and was now asking her client to waive it knowing that she would not agree because she “prizes her privacy above all else.”

Ronickher said the Ethics Committee investigation must include the fact that Meehan, in his Saturday statement responding to the Times article, “knowingly breached confidentiality in his agreement by discussing the case and the terms of any potential settlement agreement.”

Meehan’s former aide declined multiple requests for comment.

This account is based on interviews with 10 people, including friends and former colleagues of the former aide and others who worked around the office. The New York Times is not naming the former aide, who followed the recommended procedures for reporting harassment but came away from the experience feeling traumatized, according to several people with whom she shared her feelings.

Meehan’s family was close to the former aide, according to friends and colleagues, and she was regarded as an integral employee in the office, according to people who worked in or around the office.

They said Meehan seemed to favor her over other employees, so much so that others saw his favoritism as unprofessional. He expressed interest in her personal relationships outside the office, then seemed to become jealous in April when word spread through the office about the aide’s boyfriend. After Meehan’s professions of attraction and subsequent hostility, the woman filed a complaint with the congressional Office of Compliance over the summer, alleging sexual harassment.

The handling of that complaint — which included an aggressive pushback by representatives from Meehan’s office and congressional lawyers, who suggested she had misinterpreted the congressman’s behavior — demoralized the aide.