Taxpayers Have Coughed Up $550,000 in Sexual Harassment Settlements for Members of Congress, CNN Reports

Taxpayers have coughed up more than half a million dollars in confidential sexual harassment settlements involving members of Congress, a number previously reported to be much lower.

CNN’s Annie Grayer laid out the details in a Thursday report for the network, citing documents from the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights. It was previously known that more than $300,000 had been paid to settle lawsuits involving members of Congress, but now documents show that a $220,0000 payment made on behalf of a lawmaker was initially missed.

The $220,000 settlement involved the now-deceased Alcee Hastings, a congressman from the state of Florida.

“In its initial production to Congress, the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights had missed a $220,0000 payment on behalf of former Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings, who died in 2021. The payment marks the single biggest congressional sexual harassment settlement known to date and nearly doubles the tax-payer funded total for such cases disclosed last week. Hastings previously called the allegations ‘ludicrous,'” Grayer reported.

The reporter later joined Kate Bolduan on air to further detail the new documents and Hastings’s accuser, who felt the system she was in at the time was designed to benefit members of Congress rather than legitimately tackle complaints. The employee, whose name was redacted in files, filed harassment complaints in 2010 and a settlement was paid out in 2014.

“The mediator’s attempt to define for me ‘what is in my best interest’ before I have had the opportunity to meet with the court-appointed attorney completely oversteps the boundaries of her responsibilities and demonstrates a clear disregard of my rights to counsel,” the accuser wrote in a 2013 letter.

“I spoke to the woman who brought forward these allegations, and she talked about just how difficult her life has been since she made this settlement and even mentioned that even though that $220,000 is what the settlement agreement is for that actually after taxes what she received was much less,” Grayer told Bolduan.

Hastings passed away in 2021 and a law was passed in 2018 preventing taxpayers from coughing up settlement payments for members of Congress.

Watch above via CNN.

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