«Nancy Pelosi did not elect the congressman, and she sure as hell won’t be the one to tell the congressman to leave,» attorney Arnold Reed told reporters.
An attorney for U. S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, criticized House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s call for the Congressman’s resignation, telling reporters Conyers would not be pressured to step down after multiple accusations of sexual harassment.
In an impromptu news conference in Detroit, Conyers’ lawyer Arnold Reed said Conyers has not thought about resigning and is instead focused on his health, adding that any decision on his future would be completely up to him.
«Nancy Pelosi did not elect the congressman, and she sure as hell won’t be the one to tell the congressman to leave,» he told reporters.
Reed said Conyers was taken to the hospital last night and remains there after he felt lightheaded and was experiencing shortness of breath and chest pains.
Reed also said the allegations against Conyers to other high-profile celebrities like former Today Show host Matt Lauer is like comparing «apples and oranges» because the allegations must go through due process in the political realm.
«You just cannot fire somebody without going through the proper channels,» Reed said.
Michigan Congressman John Conyers in hospital, political consultant says
On Monday, Nov. 20, the website Buzzfeed News reported Conyers, 88, settled a complaint in 2015 from a woman alleging she was fired because she rejected his sexual advances. Buzzfeed reported the woman was paid more than $27,000 from Conyers’ taxpayer-funded office to settle the complaint under a confidentiality agreement.
BuzzFeed also published documents from some former congressional staff members who describe seeing Conyers touch other female staffers inappropriately, including rubbing their legs and backs or requesting sexual favors.
Since the initial story published, Conyers accuser Marion Brown came forward to speak on NBC’s Today Show and said she’d been subjected to multiple propositions of sex over more than a decade before she was fired.
A former staffer, Deanna Maher, told The Detroit News earlier this week that Conyers was sexually inappropriate to her several times in the late 1990s. Another woman filed a lawsuit against Conyers earlier this year, but later dropped it after unsuccessful efforts to seal court documents.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi calls for John Conyers’ resignation
