A House Democrat has been revealed to have been caught up in a settlement on Monday night. Yet another major Democrat busted. The incident involved a 2000 event where a staffer was fired for reporting that she was sexually abused at a business that was connected to a very important campaign contributor.
Per Daily Wire:
Andrea Payne, a former congressional aide for Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), filed a complaint with the Office of Compliance while she worked in the congressman’s New York Queens office after the alleged sexual assault, The Daily Caller News Foundation reported. Meeks, who fired her shortly after, admitted in a lawsuit that he did not fire her because of anything related to the quality of her on-the-job performance.
“This is an action to recover for damages sustained by plaintiff when Representative Meeks violated her Constitutional rights by retaliating against her, and ultimately terminating her employment, because of her sexual assault lawsuit,” Payne’s attorneys wrote, as reported by the DCNF.
The money that was paid to Payne on March 27, 2006 came from the U.S. Congress Office of Compliance, which uses taxpayer money to pay out settlements regarding allegations of sexual misconduct and other inappropriate workplace behaviors.
Payne claims that in 2000 she visited Flowers Physical Therapy, where she was treated for injuries she sustained in a car accident. The owner’s wife was described in the lawsuit as “an important campaign supporter and fundraiser for Representative Meeks.”
During her treatment, Payne claims, a physical therapist there “attempted to insert his finger into her vagina,” claiming that he was “treating a groin injury when her medical records would have shown her injuries were elsewhere.”
Payne pursued criminal charges against the therapist, who was ultimately acquitted after legal missteps were made in the case.
The story was originally broken by Daily Caller:
The Office of House Employment Counsel brokered a settlement in 2006 over allegations that Rep. Gregory Meeks fired a staffer in retaliation for reporting that she was sexually assaulted at a business tied to a campaign contributor, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.
Andrea Payne, then a congressional aide in the New York Democrat’s Queens office, filed a complaint with the Office of Compliance, and Meeks fired her weeks later. He admitted that Payne’s termination did not have to do with the quality of her work, according to her lawsuit.
“This is an action to recover for damages sustained by plaintiff when Representative Meeks violated her Constitutional rights by retaliating against her, and ultimately terminating her employment, because of her sexual assault lawsuit,” Payne’s attorneys wrote.
How many of these reports are going to happen? This is absolutely disgusting. The Trump administration is moving toward making these settlements public knowledge and it needs to happen NOW.
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