John Conyers, 88, has been accused by multiple former staff members of sexual harassment. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP NYT: Conyers won't seek re-election amid sexual harassment scandal

Rep. John Conyers, the longest-serving member of the House who has been accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct, will retire instead of seeking re-election at the end of his current term, a relative of the congressman told The New York Times.

“He is not resigning. He is going to retire,” Ian Conyers, the congressman’s 29-year-old grandnephew told the Times in a story published Tuesday morning. “His doctor advised him that the rigor of another campaign would be too much for him just in terms of his health.”


Ian Conyers said his granduncle will announce his plans to retire during a phone call to a local radio show Tuesday morning. The Michigan Democrat has represented his Detroit district since 1965.

Ian Conyers, a state senator in Michigan, said he plans to run for the elder Conyers' seat.

John Conyers, 88, has been accused by multiple former staff members of sexual harassment, including one claim that was controversially settled in secret via a payment from the congressman’s office budget.

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The congressman has been absent from Washington since last week, when he returned to Detroit, and has been hospitalized for several days. He has thus far resisted mounting calls for his resignation from prominent Democratic lawmakers, including from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

On Tuesday, another former staff member came forward saying John Conyers had slid his hand up her skirt and rubbed her thighs while the two sat in the front row of a church, according to an affidavit posted by attorney Lisa Bloom. She also said she has witnessed the lawmaker groping the legs and buttocks of other female staffers on “multiple occasions.”

Elisa Grubbs is the cousin of another woman, Marion Brown, who has also leveled allegations of harassment against John Conyers.

