Rep. Chuck Edwards has filed a complaint against the leaders of the House Ethics Committee, alleging the panel failed to follow its own rules when it investigated allegations that he sexually harassed two young, female staff members.
Edwards, a Republican who represents North Carolina’s 11th District, filed the complaint earlier this month but only publicly released it on Tuesday.
“The Ethics Committee demanded that I be punished for supposedly violating the ‘letter and spirit’ of House rules while its own leaders treated those same rules as optional,” Edwards said in a statement. “There was nothing ethical about this process. They decided the outcome, adopted their report before receiving my response, denied me the procedures designed to test their accusations, and then publicly attacked my character based on findings that were never subjected to an adjudicatory hearing or the required clear-and-convincing-evidence standard.”
Edwards ended his reelection campaign after the ethics committee released its report last month. The report, which was backed by dozens of pages of evidence, stated that Edwards “engaged in persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct” toward the staffers, which included sending them lavish gifts, skipping House votes to spend time with them and inviting them to intimate dinners and vacations.
Weeks later, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to censure Edwards over his alleged behavior.
In its lengthy report, the ethics panel said Edwards “agreed to waive the otherwise necessary procedures for the Committee to recommend a House floor sanction and submitted his Response to the Report.”
But in a statement Tuesday, the Republican congressman said the waiver request was made verbally by one of his attorneys, not in writing as the committee’s rules require. He faulted the panel’s leaders, Chairman Michael Guest (R-Miss.) and Ranking Member Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.).
“Chairman Guest and Ranking Member DeSaulnier cannot manufacture a waiver that does not exist,” Edwards said. “Nor can they use an oral communication with counsel as a license to discard their own rules. Rule 26(b) is unambiguous: a waiver must be written, signed by the respondent, and specific about the rights being waived. None of that occurred.”
The complaint states that Edwards was “coerced” into waiving parts of the panel’s process, although it does not provide any details to support that allegation. Edwards also makes other procedural claims about the panel, including that it voted to adopt its report before Edwards had submitted his formal response. The committee included a link to Edwards’ response in its press release on the report.
Edwards’ complaint to the Office of Congressional Conduct is dated Sept. 2 – one day after the House voted to censure him. It names Guest and DeSaulnier as the subjects of the allegation.
A spokesperson for DeSaulnier did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Guest referred BPR to the House Ethics Committee, which declined to comment.
Edwards’ office said Tuesday that the congressman is seeking an independent investigation as well as a public apology for the “grave and lasting damage inflicted upon Edwards’ character, dignity, reputation, family, and public service.”
