Ethics Committee Rebukes Meadows Over Aide’s Sexual Misconduct

WASHINGTON — The House Ethics Committee issued a rare letter of reproval Friday to Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the hard-line Freedom Caucus, for mishandling sexual harassment allegations against a top aide, after complaints from six female staff members that his former chief of staff frequently engaged in unwanted touching and stared down their blouses.

The committee faulted Meadows for failing “to take prompt and decisive action to deal with the alleged sexual harassment” by the aide, Kenny West, who was dismissed from the office in 2015. Although Meadows banned West from his Washington office, curtailed his responsibilities and forbade him to contact female employees, he improperly continued to compensate West for four months until firing him, committee investigators found.

“Representative Meadows could have and should have done more to ensure that his congressional office was free from discrimination or the perception of discrimination,” the committee wrote in its bipartisan report. It ordered Meadows to reimburse the U.S. Treasury approximately $40,000 that he paid West in salary that the committee said was not commensurate with his work.

The report continued a year of reckoning on sexual misconduct that swept out lawmakers and staff members accused of improprieties and cast an unwelcome and unflattering spotlight on Meadows, an influential conservative. His office did not respond to a request for comment.

In an extensive report released Friday, the committee detailed that several female staff members complained to Meadows that West routinely put his hands on their backs and shoulders, pulled their hair, and stared down their blouses and up their skirts. He also made inappropriate comments about their physical appearances, witnesses said, telling one woman that he could not believe “your husband lets you out” looking “that way.”

Frustration in the office came to a head in October 2014 when a group of employees met with Meadows’ deputy chief of staff at the time to discuss the inappropriate conduct. The congressman held a meeting with his staff in January and said he would “take care of it,” multiple witnesses told investigators. He then removed West from his Washington office and changed his title to “senior adviser.”

Problems continued when West unexpectedly showed up at Meadows’ district office in North Carolina and was asked by staff members not to return. Meadows later announced that West would leave the office entirely.

But West continued to be compensated at the same rate, a decision Meadows made “for the sake of a smooth transition,” he wrote in a 2015 letter submitted to the Office of Congressional Ethics, noting that “Kenny did continue to perform some services and was paid through August 2015.”

Both Meadows and West refused to cooperate with the office’s review.

The committee also released a report Friday reproving Rep. Ruben Kihuen, D-Nev. Kihuen, a freshman lawmaker, did not seek re-election after BuzzFeed News reported that he had repeatedly harassed and made sexual advances toward his finance director. Two other women, one an aide, the other a lobbyist, testified before the committee that Kihuen made repeated unwanted physical and verbal advances toward them and, in one case, suggested “through the use of emojis” that they make a sex tape together.

A year ago, both chambers passed resolutions that would require all members and their staffs to attend annual sexual harassment awareness training seminars. Incoming freshmen members received training on how to prevent and respond to harassment and discrimination this week as part of their new-member orientation.

Legislation that would hold lawmakers accountable for harassment and reform the procedures on Capitol Hill, however, has yet to reach the president’s desk. While both chambers have passed their own versions, discrepancies have not been resolved.

“The committee is conscious of the current climate, as the nation seeks a more full-throated societal condemnation of sexual harassment than what has been the norm of past generations,” the report said. “As representatives of the people, the House should be a leader in this national conversation.”