Ethics panel recommends censure for GOP Rep. Chuck Edwards for ‘inappropriate conduct’
WASHINGTON — The House Ethics Committee said Monday it is recommending that Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., be censured by the full House after finding that he “engaged in persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct towards two young female staffers.”
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“The Committee found that Representative Edwards violated the House Code of Official Conduct by failing to adhere to the spirit of rules prohibiting sexual harassment of and unwanted advances to House staffers,” the Ethics Committee said in its following a months-long investigation into allegations against Edwards.
The bipartisan panel, led by Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., and the ranking member, Rep. Mark DeSalnier, D-Calif., said Edwards denied that any of his actions were intended to be sexual or romantic in nature. He cooperated with the investigation, according to the report.
And the committee said it found no evidence that the congressman engaged in sexual activity with or propositioned any of his staffers. It also concluded that the allegations against Edwards “do not implicate quid pro quo sexual harassment” or violate federal sexual harassment law.
But the panel added that “his pattern of behavior would lead a reasonable observer to interpret it as such, including providing the young women with lavish and recurrent gifts, making comments regarding their appearance and dress, inviting them to intimate dinners and vacations, sending notes regarding his effusive affection, and inviting them to other activities as a way to spend time together.”
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The House is on its long summer recess, so a censure vote could not happen until September at the earliest.
The committee also released a 60-page appendix of messages between Edwards and the two young women who worked for him, as well as some photos of gifts he gave them.
Edwards’ office referred a request for comment to his campaign, which did not immediately respond.
Edwards previously called the allegations “baseless” and said in a statement to NBC News in May that he welcomed an investigation.
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