Poems, Designer Bags, Guns, and Vacations: House Ethics Committee Accuses GOP Congressman of Sexual Harassment

A Republican congressman is being accused by his colleagues in the House Ethics Committee of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment by crossing boundaries with two young female staffers. The committee says Congressman Chuck Edwards texted the two women late into the night, gifted them items like designer purses, guns, and vacations, and made comments about their appearance and weight — all while being rude to other members of his staff.Mr. Edwards is considered to be vulnerable in this year’s midterm elections, and Democrats are all but sure to take advantage of this scandal in their effort to unseat him. President Trump won Mr. Edwards’ western North Carolina district by ten points in 2024. Mr. Edwards’ Democratic opponent, farmer Jamie Ager, has more than $2 million in his campaign account according to the most recent FEC records. According to the House Ethics Committee, Mr. Edwards persistently engaged in behaviors that made two young women on his staff deeply uncomfortable. Neither of those staffers are identified by name in the committee’s report, though one of those women was just 19 when she met Mr. Edwards and worked as an intern in his state senate office. The other woman’s age is not disclosed. “The Report includes the findings of the Committee in this matter, along with the responsive views of Representative Edwards. At the completion of its investigation, the Committee concluded there was substantial reason to believe Representative Edwards violated House Rules related to sexual harassment and hostile workplaces,” the committee writes in its 20-page report. The committee is recommending that the full House censure Mr. Edwards. The Republican chairman of the panel, Congressman Michael Guest, plans to bring a resolution to the House floor soon in order to censure his colleague. Mr. Edwards’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the report.The report finds that Mr. Edwards “engaged in persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct towards two young female staffers” which would “lead a reasonable observer to interpret” that Mr. Edwards was harassing those staffers. The committee says Mr. Edwards invited the women “to intimate dinners and vacations,” sent “notes regarding his effusive affection,” and invited them to “other activities as a way to spend time together.” Mr. Edwards is not accused of nor did the committee find any evidence that Mr. Edwards had sexual relationships with the staffers, nor did he ever proposition them for such. “Representative Edwards was at minimum blind to that reality, and at worst, dismissive of the impact his inappropriate conduct had on the careers and wellbeing of two women on his staff,” the committee writes. One of the staffers worked for Mr. Edwards for three years, while the other worked for him for about two-and-a-half years. Both women quit their jobs but did not tell Mr. Edwards the true reason why they were leaving.The staffers claimed to the committee that Mr. Edwards made comments about their appearances and even in one instance made a remark about one staffer’s weight. He said that “they looked ‘pretty’ or ‘breathtaking,’” according to the committee. He told committee members that he did make such remarks, including about one of the staffer’s dresses, though he claimed that the comment really was just about the dress and that he was simply trying to be polite. According to the report, Mr. Edwards “acknowledged at least some of the behavior at issue could be viewed as inappropriate.”In other instances, Mr. Edwards gave a number of gifts to the two young women, “including jewelry totaling over $1,000, designer purses, guns, shoes, flowers, a laptop and cell phone, KitchenAid mixer, robotic vacuum, vacations, tickets to performances, and one-on-one dinners.” One of the staffers told the committee that she wore a necklace that he had given her, though when she stopped wearing it, “he made a comment about … how disappointed he is that I’m not willing to wear” the jewelry.The committee found that Mr. Edwards took the other staffer to a holiday party at the White House, “hid the details from other staffers, bought her flowers, and texted her in advance that he was ‘so excited about tonight’ and wanted the evening to be ‘perfect.’” That staffer claimed that, after the White House party, Mr. Edwards “attempted to pressure her to continue the evening with him after the event and insisted on having her travel to and from the event in his car, with his driver.”In three instances, Mr. Edwards took the staffers out of Washington, D.C., for personal trips. At the end of a work trip to New York City with one of his staff members, he made the decision to stay an extra day with her because it was his birthday. He planned to take her on a helicopter ride, to dinner, and to a Broadway show, according to the committee. Other trips included visiting Annapolis, Maryland for the day, after which Mr. Edwards texted the accompanying staff member that he would “cherish every moment of our time these last couple of days.” In a third case, he traveled to Las Vegas with one of the women who had since left his staff, and had flowers sent to her hotel room. According to text messages reviewed by the committee, the former staffer texted Mr. Edwards to ensure that the flowers were not an attempt to be a romantic gesture, to which Mr. Edwards responded that they were not. He apologized for making her uncomfortable, according to those text messages. In one of the more bizarre moments described by the committee’ report, Mr. Edwards threw a going away party for one of the departing staff members and read her a poem in front of the rest of his office staff. He created a slideshow to accompany that poem, and later began to cry. “Several staffers present testified that they felt uncomfortable,” the committee’s report states, “and Representative Edwards acknowledged in his own testimony that he could tell the staff felt uncomfortable.”According to the testimony of another senior staff member, Mr. Edwards was made aware that he was making the two young women uncomfortable, though he declined to alter his behaviors. Mr. Edwards even grew angry with the staff member who brought the two women’s concerns to his attention. A “senior staffer spoke to Representative Edwards on behalf of both women,” the report says. “The senior staff testified that Representative Edwards ‘got very angry’ and said she ‘didn’t understand the unique relationship’ he had with them” The report further states that Mr. Edwards accused other members of his team of “getting in the way” of his relationship with the two young women. “Taken individually, many of Representative Edwards’ actions were at minimum inappropriate,” the committee’s report says. “That Representative Edwards did all these things to two young staffers, repeatedly over a sustained period, was beyond inappropriate.”“There is substantial evidence, as described above, that Representative Edwards violated the spirit of the House’s prohibition on sexual harassment and unwanted advances through his conduct,” the report states.

Poems, Designer Bags, Guns, and Vacations: House Ethics Committee Accuses GOP Congressman of Sexual Harassment

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