A prospective staffer of Rep George Santos has filed a complaint accusing him of making an unwanted sexual advance toward him when he was alone with Santos in his office. A report was also filed with Capitol Police.
Derek Myers was seeking employment with Santos as a House aide, and was told he would be working as a volunteer before he was formally registered as an employee.
Myers says he wants the ethics committee to investigate Santos for his use of volunteer labor, as well as for sexual harassment.
Myers claims that he was alone with Mr. Santos in his office on Jan. 25 when the congressman asked him whether he had a profile on Grindr, a popular gay dating app. Then, he said, Mr. Santos invited him to karaoke and touched his groin, assuring him that his husband was out of town.
Five days after the inappropriate encounter, Myers says that Santos began questioning his previous work as a local news reporter in Ohio. Myers was charged with wiretapping after he published audio recorded by a source in a courtroom. The case is ongoing, but journalism advocacy groups have urged prosecutors to drop the charge.
Myers recorded a conversation with Santos regarding the Ohio case.
Myers found himself recording a weird conversation in Santos’s office on January 30, as he suspected a confrontation about the wiretapping charges in Ohio. They talked about thrift store ties, Brazilian candy, and the cost of Botox before Myers asked Santos bluntly if he was being fired.
Santos and his chief of staff Charley Lovett even joked about Myers possibly recording the conversation.
“From my understanding, recording in this building is a federal crime, and you get seven years,” Santos told Myers on the tape. “Have fun at your peril!”
Ultimately the chief of staff Lovett called Myers two days later to tell him the employment offer was off the table.