The US House of Representatives has voted overwhelmingly to censure Republican congressman Chuck Edwards after an ethics investigation found he had subjected two female staff members to persistent and inappropriate conduct.
The resolution passed by 413 votes to two on Tuesday, despite a last-minute appeal from Mr Edwards, who urged colleagues to judge him on “the facts, not on the inference, insinuation or headlines”. He voted in favour of the measure against him.
Censure is the House’s strongest sanction short of expulsion and represents a formal public rebuke on the chamber floor. Mr Edwards, who represents North Carolina, is not seeking re-election after the ethics report was published last month.
The bipartisan House Ethics Committee concluded that he had created a hostile working environment and found “substantial evidence” that he had violated the spirit of House rules prohibiting sexual harassment and unwanted advances.
Its report, released on August 3, said Mr Edwards had repeatedly blurred professional boundaries with the two young staffers. The conduct included comments about their appearance and weight, late-night messages, deeply personal and seemingly romantic thoughts, and attempts to isolate them from other members of staff.
The committee also cited gifts and other benefits, including jewellery worth more than $1,000, designer handbags, guns, shoes, flowers, a laptop and mobile phone, a KitchenAid mixer, holidays and private dinners.
“A Member of Congress should not single out a staffer and isolate them from other staff,” the report said, adding that the pattern of behaviour was “beyond inappropriate”. The investigation lasted more than four months, included interviews with 16 people and involved a review of nearly 1,500 pages of documents, according to the committee’s ranking Democrat, Mark DeSaulnier.
Mr Edwards apologised to the two women, who no longer work for him, saying he recognised that his understanding of their relationships had not always matched theirs. He maintained, however, that “regret is not an admission of sexual harassment”.
Addressing the House before the vote, he said: “I am imperfect. I have made mistakes, but I do not believe I committed sexual harassment. The factual findings of this investigation do not justify branding me as though I did.”
The committee found no evidence that Mr Edwards had explicitly propositioned either staffer or engaged in sexual activity with them. It nevertheless said that the absence of such conduct did not prevent his behaviour from amounting to sexual harassment under House standards.
Michael Guest, the Republican chairman of the Ethics Committee, said the case did not involve “quid pro quo sexual harassment” but behaviour that created a hostile workplace. He said a reasonable person could interpret Mr Edwards’s pattern of conduct as sexual or romantic, even though the congressman denied that was his intention.
Mr Edwards’s censure is the latest in a series of ethics cases involving members of Congress accused of misconduct towards staff. The vote came after House leaders began a bipartisan review of workplace protections on Capitol Hill, amid growing concern over how women employed by lawmakers are treated.
