REVEALED: The Congressman who settled a sexual harassment lawsuit with $84,000 in taxpayer funds

We now know which congressman settled a sexual harassment lawsuit with $84,000 in taxpayer funds that was filed in court against him back in 2014.

Blake Farenthold:

Here’s more:

POLITICO – Rep. Blake Farenthold used taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment claim brought by his former spokesman — the only known sitting member of Congress to have used a little-known congressional account to pay an accuser, sources told POLITICO.

Lauren Greene, the Texas Republican’s former communications director, sued her boss in December 2014 over allegations of gender discrimination, sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment.

Greene claimed in the lawsuit that another Farenthold aide told her the lawmaker had “sexual fantasies” and “wet dreams” about Greene. She also claimed that Farenthold “regularly drank to excess” and told her in February 2014 that he was “estranged from his wife and had not had sex with her in years.”

When she complained about comments Farenthold and a male staffer made to her, Greene said the congressman improperly fired her. She filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, but the case was later dropped after both parties reached a private settlement.

No information was ever released on that agreement.

House Administration Committee Chairman Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) told GOP lawmakers in a closed-door Friday morning meeting that only one House office in the past five years had used an Office of Compliance account to settle a sexual harassment complaint. Harper said in that one instance, the settlement totaled $84,000.

Politico goes on to point out that both Farenthold and his lawyer vehemently deny the claims and shows the joint statement by Farenthold and Greene that was prepared at the time of the settlement, but never released:

But in a joint statement both Greene and Farenthold prepared at the time of the settlement but never released — a copy of which was shared with POLITICO by Alderman on Friday — the two confirmed they reached a deal in part to save taxpayer dollars.

“[A]fter it became clear that further litigating this case would come at great expense to all involved — including the taxpayers — the parties engaged in mediation with a court-appointed mediator,” the statement read. “After extensive discussion and consideration, the parties jointly agreed to accept the solution proposed by the mediator.”

The statement added: “The parties believe that the mediator’s solution saves the parties, and the taxpayers, significant sums that would be expended in further discovery and/or trial.”

The statement also states that Farenthold “disagrees strongly” with his client’s allegations and “adamantly denies that he engaged in any wrongdoing.” It says the settlement included a confidentiality agreement that precludes Greene and Farenthold from discussing the case and “expressly provides that both parties deny all liability.”

Greene had worked for Farenthold for 18 months. According to Greene’s complaint in court, Farenthold and his top aide, Bob Haueter, sexually harassed her, allegations that both men vehemently denied.

There’s more on the allegations in the article which you can read here.

This smells really bad to me. If Farenthold were really innocent here, something tells me that he would have fought the allegations no matter how much taxpayer money it cost to prove his innocence. Instead it looks like they tried to engineer this settlement in a way to create the illusion of his innocence.

If he were found guilty of sexually harassing Greene, it would have done far more damage to his reputation and he would have likely had to give up his seat in Congress. He would have had much to lose with this case continuing in the courts and he had everything to gain by settling, especially considering it didn’t cost him a dime out of his pocket.

That said, Politico included this from the House ethics committee:

The Office of Congressional Ethics investigated Greene’s allegations. But in a letter to the House Ethics Committee the watchdog said “there is not substantial reason to believe that Representative Farenthold sexually harassed or discriminated against [ex-staffer Lauren Greene], or engaged in an effort to intimidate, take reprisal against, or discriminate against [Greene] for opposing such treatment, in violation of House rules and federal law.”

Again if he were truly innocent, and he had the ethics committee backing him up like this, I suspect he would have fought for his innocence.

But who knows, I could be wrong here.


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