Conyers Steps Down as Ranking Dem on Judiciary as a Former Staffer Says She Was Abused

Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) has stepped down as the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee as the House Ethics Committee investigates allegations that he sexually harassed aides. Politico reports that over the Thanksgiving holiday, Congressional Black Caucus Chair Cedric Richmond (D-LA) and Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn (D-SC)reached out to some CBC members to see how the Caucus was feeling about the situation. Last week, Congressman Greg Meeks (D-NY) became the first CBC member to say Conyers should step down. This all comes as another woman, Melanie Sloan, has accused Conyers of inappropriate behavior. Sloan, a well-known DC lawyer who for three years in the 1990s worked as Democratic Counsel on the House Judiciary Committee, told the Detroit Free Press that the Congressman constantly berated her, screamed at her, and fired her and then rehired her several times. She says Conyers criticized her appearance and once showed up to a meeting in his underwear. Sloan made clear that she did not feel she had ever been sexually harassed, but that she felt mistreated. She said that she approached several people, including committee staff, a reporter, and a high-ranking member of then-House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt’s staff about Conyers’ behavior but was told nothing could be done. She also said that on occasion, she had been described to someone as “mentally unstable” for making the claims. Lisa Bloom, an attorney for a woman who filed a sexual harassment complaint against Conyers in 2014, said that her client was forced to sign a confidentiality agreement. She asked the congressional office that handles harassment charges to release her client from her confidentiality agreement "so that she may have a voice to tell her own story." On Sunday, more than a dozen female former staffers defended Conyers in a statement sent to HuffPost saying, “While we do not pass judgment on the specific allegations reported in the press or the women who brought them, our experiences with Mr. Conyers were quite different than the image of him being portrayed in the media,” the former staffers wrote in their statement. Conyers maintains his innocence. More here.