Santos denies sexual harassment allegation from former potential worker

Republican Consultant Jorge Santos on Monday denied groping a former potential staffer in his congressional workplace, calling the sexual harassment allegation “ridiculous.”

Santos, the embattled new lawmaker from New York who’s going through different scandals and investigations, mentioned he “in fact” denies the most recent declare “100%”. CNN reported,

The denial got here three days after Santos’ accuser, Derek Myers, mentioned he had filed a report back to the US Capitol Police and the Home Committee on Ethics to research the alleged sexual assault incident.

Myers requested the ethics panel to research Santos’ workplace for allegedly delegating duties to staff and promising them future employment, in line with a letter Myers posted on Twitter.

Neither NBC Information nor CNBC have been in a position to independently confirm the letter’s allegations.

A spokeswoman for Santos’ workplace referred CNBC to his legal professional, who declined to remark. US Capitol Police didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for touch upon Myers’ alleged report.

Myers’ involvement with Santos first got here to gentle final week, when Speaking Factors Memo printed audio that Myers secretly recorded contained in the Congressional Workplace. The report, which described Myers as a neighborhood information reporter, famous that he had been accused of wiretapping final yr after his outlet printed leaked audio of courtroom testimony. The nonprofit Committee to Defend Journalists has known as for these expenses to be dropped.

In her letter posted Friday, Myers mentioned Santos sexually assaulted her on Jan. 25 whereas the 2 males have been alone within the congresswoman’s personal workplace going over constituent mail. Myers’ letter acknowledged that Santos had requested Myers earlier within the day if he had a profile on the LGBTQ relationship app Grindr, sharing that “he had his personal profile.”

Myers wrote that Santos known as him “buddy” and “insisted” that Myers “sit down subsequent to him on a small couch earlier than putting his hand on my left leg, close to my knee, and saying, ‘Hey. Dude, we will karaoke tonight.” , would you prefer to go?'”

Myers refused, and Santos “proceeded to take his hand and moved it down my leg to my internal thigh and proceeded to the touch my groin,” in line with the letter. “Then he checked out me and mentioned, ‘My husband is out of city tonight if you wish to come,'” and shared his handle with Myers, the letter alleges.

Myers mentioned he pushed Santos’ hand away and returned to debate constituent mail, leaving the workplace shortly thereafter. 5 days later, Myers wrote, she was known as into Santos’ workplace and “requested about my background as a journalist” and what “had already been disclosed” in prior discussions with the hiring managers. .

On February 1, Myers’ job provide was rescinded, the letter alleged. He had been supplied a employees place every week earlier, on 23 January, and started performing numerous duties on the workplace the next day, however was advised to remain till his onboarding paperwork was accomplished. Their title can be “Volunteer”. in line with the letter.

Myers demanded an investigation into the matter, writing, “Since then, I’ve realized that such volunteers work throughout the Congressional Workplace with out following right procedures, which is a violation of Home Ethics.”

The Republican majority’s Workplace on Ethics didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for touch upon Myers’ letter. Susan Wild, a spokeswoman for Rep. Susan Wild, the top-ranking Democrat on the panel, advised NBC that the workplace had acquired the letter. The Workplace of Congressional Ethics, a nonpartisan group that Myers tagged in her Twitter thread, additionally didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.