NC Congressman Chuck Edwards to face censure in US House for inappropriate conduct

The U.S. House Ethics Committee announced Monday afternoon that it is recommending censure for North Carolina’s 11th District Rep. Chuck Edwards, a Republican, who was under investigation for allegations of inappropriate conduct toward two young women who worked in his office. 

“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 said in a press release. 

Edwards did not immediately respond to NC Newsline’s request for comment. But in his official response to the committee, the congressman called censure “an extraordinarily harsh and infrequent punishment,” and insisted the investigation had not proven he broke any actual rules. 

In a report that accompanied the committee’s statement, investigators found Edwards had created a “hostile work environment” through a pattern of “inappropriate actions” toward the two young staffers, though it found no evidence he had inappropriately touched them or made explicitly sexual comments to them. 

“Despite the absence of an explicit proposition, a reasonable person could interpret Representative Edwards’ intimate and effusive attentions, where he prioritized the personal over the professional, as thinly veiled advances,” the report says. “There is also contemporaneous evidence and testimony that Staffer 1 and Staffer 2 perceived the conduct as abusive.”  

The committee also found that Edwards had deleted “particularly inappropriate” messages he sent to the staffers. 

“Representative Edwards himself acknowledged that one reason he deleted messages was a concern they ‘might have been interpreted in a way that it wasn’t intended or that someone may be resentful of.’ His decision to delete the messages identified by the Committee indicates he was aware that their content was cause for concern,” the report says. 

The statement says that Edwards does not agree with the committee findings but agreed to allow the report and the recommendation for censure to move forward. 

“Representative Edwards has continued to deny any wrongdoing publicly and to the Committee,” the report says. “He has also refused to acknowledge the reality of the power imbalance between a Member of Congress and young staffers, even as his former staffers have been put through this difficult and emotional process with serious repercussions on their personal and professional lives. This shows a lack of self-awareness and accountability.” 

According to the report, both women left the staff of the U.S. House.