Ethics report: Meadows’ staff complained of harassment

Several female staffers in Rep. Mark Meadows' office complained that his chief of staff sexually harassed them several months before the North Carolina Republican dismissed him and paid him a severance package that's currently being probed by the House Ethics Committee.



POLITICO reported last September that Meadows may have violated House rules when he continued paying top staffer Kenny West after he left the job. West was originally reported to have left his position on May 21, 2015 — though new documents released on Wednesday indicate his departure may have happened much earlier. He was paid through Aug. 15, 2015.



A Meadows spokeswoman at the time said the pay was for “vacation and severance. Several House sources at the time argued such a payment didn’t appear to be in line with the House Ethics Manual, which says “compensation may be received only for duties performed within the preceding month.” The House does have a "lump sum" payment form, however, that includes a box members can check labeled "severance."

However, new documents released by the House Ethics Committee on Wednesday suggest the severance issue wasn't the only problem in Meadows' office regarding West. According to a March 18 referral to the committee by the Office of Congressional Ethics, several women came to Meadows’ deputy chief of staff in the fall of 2014 with complaints that West was making untoward comments.


"In October 2014, a group of employees in Representative Meadows’ Washington, DC office reported to the then-Deputy Chief of Staff that they were uncomfortable with Mr. West’s inappropriate behavior towards them," the OCE referral states.

Meadows learned of the matter soon after, the referral says. According to the OCE, Meadows' office told West in October 2014 not to come to the office anymore, though it does not appear he was terminated until much later. Multiple witnesses told the OCE that Meadows' office, however, "took actions to limit or prohibit Kenny West’s presence in the Washington, DC and district offices.”

The issue didn’t end there, though. One witness said West continued to email and call the office, leading her to believe he hadn't been let go as she first thought. At one point he appeared in the office and was told to go home.

One of three witnesses who spoke to the OCE said Meadows told staffers in January 2015 that he "did not want anyone in the office made to feel uncomfortable and that he would 'take care of it,'" according to the referral to the ethics panel.

The report says that Meadows asked Rep. Trey Gowdy's (R-S.C.) chief of staff to interview the women and determine what may have happened. When some staffers noticed that West was still doing some sort of remote work for the congressman, they reached out with their concerns to Gowdy's staff. Someone then confronted Meadows on the House floor, according to one witness.

Emails from spring of 2015 cited in the OCE report show West continued to do work for the congressman until at least April.

It is unclear how much of the House Ethics probe centers on the alleged harassment issue or whether it’s focused only on the severance matter. Based on the documents released so far, the probe seems to be centered on the severance matter.

“If Representative Meadows retained an employee who did not perform duties commensurate with the compensation the employee received, and certified that the compensation met applicable House standards, then he may have violated House rules and standards of conduct,” the document reads.

The committee decided on July 3 to extend the panel's review of the matter, as it’s doing again.

“In order to gather additional information necessary to complete its review, the Committee will review the matter,” reads a Tuesday news release from the ethicspanel. “The Committee notes that the mere fact of conducting further review of a referral, and any mandatory disclosure of such further review, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee.”

Meadows’ counsel, in a response to the OCE letter, argued that Meadows “self-reported … the underlying allegations” in November 2015 and “asked the Committee to investigate the matter and has been consistently proactive in addressing these allegations and voluntarily provided relevant documents to the Committee last month.”

“Congressman Meadows intends to continue to cooperate fully and voluntarily with the Committee,” the letter reads.

According to the newly released OCE report, Meadows told his office in April 2015 that West would no longer be chief, “yet Representative Meadows continued to authorize compensation to Kenny West until August 15, 2015.” The witnesses say they were informed of his departure earlier, though it appeared at points he may have returned to the office and sometimes they were unclear if he was really gone for good or still working remotely.



Meadows’ representative, in his response letter, said Meadows “took swift and appropriate steps to address the issues,” including an internal review.



His attorney said it was his “belief that these severance payments were consistent with House Rules and practice."

“Throughout this process, Congressman Meadows took steps to comply with all House Rules and standards of conduct and did so in the best interests of his staff and his constituents,” he said. “He believes that he met these goals, and even if his ultimate interpretation of severance may be proven in error, it was an interpretation taken in good faith.”