The House Ethics Committee is recommending that Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) be censured for his behavior toward two young female staff members.
In a 25-page report released Monday, the panel said it found that Edwards “engaged in persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct” toward the staffers, which included giving them “lavish” gifts, inviting them to “intimate dinners and vacations” and sending them notes about his “effusive affection” for them.
The report outlined several examples of how Edwards allegedly crossed the line. He gave the two staff members “lavish” gifts, including “jewelry totaling over $1,000, designer purses, guns, shoes, flowers, a laptop and cell phone, KitchenAid mixer, robotic vacuum” and more, according to the report.
He also invited them to “intimate dinners and vacations” and sent them “personal texts late in the evenings, including messages planning or following activities together and expressing personal sentiments.”
In one instance, the report said, Edwards went to a staffer’s house “to perform chores like yardwork, pick her up and drop her off for events and activities with his driver, and decorate her Christmas tree together (for which he skipped votes in the House that evening).”
In another instance, Edwards had “approximately 30 different types of ice cream” delivered to a staffer’s house. He also wrote poems for one of the staffers, “including one that he read at her going away party in the congressional office accompanied by a slideshow, during which he cried,” the report said.
“Members are prohibited from engaging in sexual harassment or making unwanted advances towards their subordinates,” the ethics panel said in its report. “Representative Edwards violated the Code of Official Conduct by failing to adhere to the letter and spirit of those prohibitions, and by failing to act in a manner that reflects creditably upon the House.”
Both of the staff members eventually left the congressman’s office for other jobs according to the report, which stated that the panel is “concerned that the House regrettably lost two staffers because of Representative Edwards’ conduct.”
“This Report should not only hold Representative Edwards accountable for his poor judgment and unbecoming conduct but also serve as a caution to all Members that sexual harassment and discrimination will not be tolerated in the House,” the House Ethics Committee report said.
Edwards, a Republican who has represented North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District since 2023, faces a competitive reelection race against Democrat Jamie Ager.
No action on the censure is likely until the House returns to Washington on August 31st.
Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.), the chairman of the House Ethics Committee, and Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.), the ranking member, said in a statement that they plan to bring a privileged resolution that would fast-track the censure vote upon the House’s return.
Edwards issued a 14-page response to the committee’s report in which his attorneys argued that the findings “exonerate Representative Edwards under House Rules governing sexual misconduct or harassment.”
Edwards’s attorneys said the committee concluded that the congressman “neither engaged in sexual activity with nor explicitly propositioned any individual staff member;” that the allegations “do not implicate quid pro quo sexual harassment;” and that Edwards “did not violate federal sexual harassment law.”
“Having reviewed the testimony and evidence assembled by the Committee and set out in the Report, Representative Edwards sincerely regrets that his behavior created discomfort in any way for Staffer 1 or Staffer 2,” the response states. “As the Report mentions, although it does not credit his statement, after Representative Edwards learned of the Staffers’ concerns he acknowledged the issue and stated that he would respect all appropriate ‘boundaries.’ At no time did either staffer provide any indication to Representative Edwards that his general behavior made them uncomfortable or was unwelcome.”
Edwards’s congressional office referred BPR to the congressman’s campaign for comment on the ethics report. The campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The House Ethics Committee first confirmed it was investigating Edwards in May. News reports at the time cited former staffers describing some of the congressman’s alleged inappropriate behavior. Monday’s report – and the exhibits released by the committee – provide a fuller picture of Edwards’s actions and his explanation for them.
According to the report, Edwards “brought three young women” with him from his state Senate office when he was elected to Congress in 2022, including one in her early 20s and another who was only 19 years old when she first interned for Edwards. The report states Edwards “insisted on hiring her to be his Scheduler, despite the difficulties of performing such a demanding role while also being a full-time student.”
The staff member, referred to as Staffer 1 in the ethics report, “was promoted to Deputy Chief of Staff at the end of 2024.”
“According to several individuals, Representative Edwards had previously told a senior male staffer who had expressed interest in becoming his Deputy Chief of Staff that he would never have a Deputy Chief of Staff because he did not believe that position served a purpose, although Representative Edwards denied ever having that conversation,” the report states. “There was a general consensus among the staff in the office that Staffer 1’s promotion was not merited; in contrast, the senior male staffer had nearly a decade of experience on Capitol Hill and was consistently described [as] a strong performer.”
The report states that Edwards spoke “to Staffer 1 and other staffers about going to strip clubs in Washington, D.C.” It also notes that Edwards commented on the two young female staffers’ appearance, telling them they looked “pretty” or “breathtaking” and making remarks about one staffer’s weight.
According to the ethics report, when asked about the remarks, Edwards told investigators, “I wrote sexual harassment policy [in the corporate world]. I … investigated sexual harassment many, many times. I lived a very cautious life. I know that commenting on clothing without associating that with any other body part or feature is common acceptable practice in the workplace.”
After Staffer 2 left Edwards’ office, the congressman sent her a handwritten letter in which he called her “the most amazing woman” and said she had “written a complex chapter in my heart that I will never stop reading,” the report states. Edwards also wrote that he “only wish[ed] I could express the joy and meaning to me for the time we spent together at the office – but especially away from it.”
Asked by investigators if the letter was intended to be romantic, Edwards replied that it was not.
“It was only to imply that we had a relationship on so many different levels – on a congressional level, on a professional level, on a friendship level, on a helping-one-another-out-with-our-chores-and-responsibility level,” he said, according to the report.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
