'What were they paying off?' Lauren Boebert warns GOP colleagues not safe with new push
A firebrand MAGA lawmaker put her colleagues on notice Wednesday — including members of her own party — as she aims squarely at Congress' sexual misconduct "slush fund" amid a bipartisan House effort to release documents in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) made the comments exclusively to Raw Story on Wednesday after joining House efforts to release the Epstein files by signing a discharge petition led by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA). Boebert was one of four Republicans who officially endorsed the petition, which seeks to force a House vote demanding the full release of Department of Justice records related to Epstein and his associates.
Talking to Raw Story, Boebert went a step further, suggesting details of sexual misconduct from fellow Congress members ought to also be brought to light.
“Also, I think the sexual assault slush fund, members of Congress paying off staffers to be quiet, that this should be released too,” Boebert told Raw Story's Matt Laslo.
Since the late 1990s, the Office of Compliance has spent more than $17 million in public money to settle workplace disputes on Capitol Hill. But that doesn't include sexual harassment, Politico reported in 2017, including a settlement for a woman who accused her former boss, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), of sexual misconduct. That money, the report said, came out of Conyers’ office budget and wasn’t included in the $17 million total.
In 2018, data released by a House committee showed nearly $300,000 in taxpayer money was spent to settle 13 claims against members of Congress or their offices since 2003, including over sexual harassment or sex discrimination, The Associated Press reported. The statistics didn't include names or other identifying information, except settlement amounts and the basis for the claim.
Boebert said that needs to change.
“That's a pretty big one, and, you know, I was promised before this Congress that we would be all over it. And I've heard more about the Epstein list and other things than that. So why are we — are these members still here? What were they covering up? What were they paying off? That's something the American people need to be demanding answers on," she said.
“That's just like a bipartisan swamp?” Raw Story asked.
“Yes,” Boebert replied. “Absolutely.”
“Like, this is how this place has worked,” Raw Story pressed, “but a part of your mandate is to upend that and, like, rid your own party of some of those elements?”
“Absolutely. I don't care what letter is next to anybody's name,” Boebert said.
She warned of what could emerge should the secret side deals face sunlight.
“Of course, you know, some things in there could be, you know, sound worse than they are,” Boebert said. “I understand that aspect of it, but I want to see what's in there. Why is this something that the House of Representatives is paying out to people and we have no transparency on it? We don't know what they're being paid for.”
Fellow Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Thomas Massie have also called for releasing the names of members who've settled with accusers.
“Congress has secretly paid out more than $17 million of your money to quietly settle charges of harassment (sexual and other forms) in Congressional offices,” Massie wrote on X in December.
“Don’t you think we should release the names of the Representatives? I do,” he said.
“Yes. I want to release the congressional sexual slush fund list,” Greene wrote on X at the time.
“Taxpayers should have never had to pay for that. Along with all the other garbage they should not have to pay for,” she added.