Conyers resigns from Congress amid harassment allegations

DETROIT» Democratic Rep. John Conyers resigned from Congress on Tuesday after a nearly 53-year career, becoming the first Capitol Hill politician to lose his job in the torrent of sexual misconduct allegations sweeping through the nation’s workplaces.

The 88-year-old civil rights leader and longest-serving member of the House announced what he referred to as his “retirement” on Detroit talk radio, while continuing to deny he groped or sexually harassed women who worked for him.

“My legacy can’t be compromised or diminished in any way by what we’re going through now,” said the congressman, who called into the radio show from the hospital where he was taken last week after complaining of lightheadedness. “This, too, shall pass. My legacy will continue through my children.”

He endorsed his son John Conyers III to succeed him.

Conyers easily won re-election last year to his 27th term in his heavily Democratic district in and around Detroit.

But after being publicly accused Sen. Ian Conyers, a grandson of Conyers’ brother, said he plans to run for the seat.

On Monday, yet another allegation was lodged against Conyers, when a woman who said she worked for him for more than a decade, Elisa Grubbs, said he slid his hand up her skirt and rubbed her thighs while she was sitting next to him in the front row of a church.

Grubbs also said she repeatedly saw Conyers touching and stroking the legs and buttocks of other female staffers. Such behavior “was a regular part of life while working in the office of Rep. Conyers,” she said.