WASHINGTON — Former Corpus Christi Rep. Blake Farenthold says he will not repay $84,000 in taxpayer money used to settle a sexual harassment suit against him.

Farenthold told ABC News on Tuesday that he has no intention of repaying the settlement, despite vowing to do so months earlier.

"I will say this on the record: I have been advised by my attorneys not to repay that," Farenthold told ABC. "That's why it hasn't been repaid."

Meanwhile, Farenthold has accepted a lucrative position lobbying for a port in his South Texas district weeks after resigning last month, less than four months after dropping re-election plans under siege for crude and verbally abusive office behavior.

The Calhoun Port Authority announced Monday that Farenthold would promote its interests in Washington and assist "in resolving funding issues."

"Blake has always been a strong supporter of the Calhoun Port Authority and is familiar with the issues facing the port," it said in a prepared statement. Port Director Charles Hausmann said Farenthold's annual salary will be $160,000.

The port is located in the Gulf Coast community of Point Comfort, an area hit by Hurricane Harvey last summer. Farenthold, a Republican, represented District 27 in Congress until last month; the district stretches from the coast to Bastrop County.

"They've got some issues with the federal government that they need to get resolved with respect to design deficiency. There's a variety of issues; I'll just leave it at that," Farenthold told the Victoria Advocate on Monday, adding that he has a "good relationship" with his former colleagues in Congress.

Farenthold abruptly quit Congress on April 6, as the House Ethics Committee investigated his use of $84,000 in taxpayer funds to settle an ex-staffer's 2014 sexual harassment claim.

Farenthold at first denied wrongdoing when he settled a lawsuit in which a former communications aide accused him of sexual harassment and retaliation. He eventually pledged to reimburse the money — but still hasn't.

"I'm going to hand a check over this week to probably Speaker [Paul] Ryan or somebody to say, 'Look, here's the amount of my settlement. Give it back to the taxpayers,'" Farenthold told KRIS-TV in Corpus Christi in December. "I didn't do anything wrong."

EXCLUSIVE: Blake Farenthold (@farenthold) tells @KRIS6_Rick that he will repay taxpayers for a lawsuit settled with taxpayer funds. Read more: https://t.co/7AYliB3TQC pic.twitter.com/fRev9I8j8A — KRIS 6 News (@KRIS6News) December 4, 2017

The ethics committee's chairman and ranking member later revealed that the panel had been scheduled to vote on the matter but instead was ending its work because Farenthold resigned.

However, Farenthold did acknowledge that he had engaged in lewd conversations with staff, and tolerated such talks.

The former conservative radio host and four-term lawmaker said in December that he had "no idea how to run a congressional office" when he got elected. As a result, "I allowed a workplace culture to take root in my office that was too permissive and decidedly unprofessional. It accommodated destructive gossip, offhand comments, off-color jokes and behavior that in general was less than professional."

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called a June 30 special election to fill the remainder of Farenthold's term, which expires early next year. Abbott urged Farenthold to put $84,000 toward the cost of that election, even though it wouldn't be enough to fully pay for it.

In a four-page letter to Abbott, Farenthold refused to cover the cost of the special election to fill his seat.

"Since I didn't call it and don't think it's necessary, I shouldn't be asked to pay for it," he wrote in the May 2 letter, arguing that using taxpayer funds wasn't wrong because he took the money from a fund dedicated to settlement payouts. He said his lawyers advised him against using his own money for the settlement because it would be "illegal and unethical."

"The way I understood it, my paying personally to resolve a dispute that I believed was totally frivolous could have been considered a bribe to the plaintiff to drop the suit," he wrote.

According to Victoria County elections administrator Vicki Vogel, the special election to replace Farenthold will cost her county at least $20,000 — double that if there is a runoff. If the district's 13 counties each spent $20,000, that would put the total cost of the election well over $200,000.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.