Politics

US Longest serving Congressman Of 52yrs Resigned Over Sexual Misconduct (pics)

Veteran Democrat John Conyers announced that he is leaving the US House of Representatives after more than five decades in office, following a series of sexual harassment accusations by former staffers.

“I am retiring today,” Mr Conyers, 88, told a Detroit radio station, as he became the first to step down among four serving US politicians facing sexual misconduct allegations.

He also endorsed his son, John Conyers III, to replace him in his congressional seat.
Speaking from an unnamed hospital where he reportedly was being treated for stress-related complications, the longest-serving member of Congress maintained that the allegations against him “are not true,” and that he could not explain their origin.

The politician was abandoned by party leadership when the seriousness of the allegations against him became apparent, and as Congress grapples with how to address the issue of sexual misconduct.
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee took to the House floor to read a letter by Conyers to his colleagues, saying he notified House Speaker Paul Ryan and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi that he was vacating his seat.

John Conyers said he notified Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of his decision.

“I was taught by a great woman, my mother, to honour women,” Mr Conyers wrote, according to the congresswoman.
“Given the totality of the circumstance of not being afforded the right of due process in conjunction with current health conditions and to preserve my legacy and good name, I am retiring.” Arnold Reed, a lawyer for Mr Conyers, said the departure was effective immediately. It marked a stunning and rapid fall for one of America’s civil rights pioneers, a man who worked with Martin Luther King Jr and hired rights icon Rosa Parks on his congressional staff, where she worked for 23 years.

But Mr Conyers, who took his Michigan seat in 1965 and was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, insisted that his record would not be tarnished by the accusations.
“My legacy can’t be compromised or diminished in any way by what we’re going through now. This too shall pass,” he said, speaking on the Mildred Gaddis Show.

Several female former staffers have come forward in the past two weeks with damning allegations.
One of them, Marion Brown, last week broke a nondisclosure agreement that she signed after receiving a settlement when she left her job in Mr Conyers’s office, saying she “felt compelled” to speak out.
“It was sexual harassment, violating my body, propositioning me, inviting me to hotels with the guise of discussing business and then propositioning me for sex,” Ms Brown told NBC.
Wounded by the mounting accusations, and well aware of the potential implications for Democrats’ efforts to win congressional seats in next year’s midterm elections, the party’s congressional leadership last week called for Mr Conyers to resign.

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