The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Attorney: Conyers to assess plans based on health tests
Several fellow Democrats ask lawmaker to resign.
DETROIT — An attorney for Michigan Rep. John Conyers said on Friday that the congressman will discuss whether to resign following allegations of sexual misconduct in the coming days, but his health will be the paramount factor and not pressure from Washington politicians.
Arnold Reed told a news conference Friday that he will be meeting with doctors to assess the medical prognosis for the 88-yearold Conyers following a second round of medical tests. Conyers has been hospitalized since Wednesday evening. No details about his condition have been released.
“We will discuss in the next day or so what Mr. Conyers plans to do. As you know his health is not the best. It’s not what it should be,” Reed
said. “It will be Congressman John Conyers who decides what it is he is going to do.”
Multiple women have accused Conyers of sexual misconduct including inappropriate touching and harassment. Reed stressed that Conyers continues to deny he sexually harassed anyone.
A number of fellow Democrats have called on Conyers to resign, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and fellow Michigan Rep. Dan Kildee. Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan has also urged Conyers to step down.
The House Ethics Committee has been reviewing the allegations against Conyers, who is the longest-serving current member of the House. He has stepped aside from his post as ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
A Nov. 20 BuzzFeed report said that Conyers’ office paid a woman more than $27,000 under a confidential agreement to settle a complaint in 2015 that she was fired from his Washington staff because she rejected his advances. Marion Brown has since publicly alleged that Conyers propositioned her for sex multiple times over more than a decade.
Another former staff member, Deanna Maher, who ran a Michigan office for Conyers from 1997 to 2005, accused Conyers of sexual misconduct including partially undressing in front of her and feeling her legs in a vehicle.